Climate Ambition with Dr Monique Ryan MP

Ambition, levers, supporting policy for a safer climate future

 

For our last public meeting of 2025, Lighter Footprints asked the Federal member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan MP, to speak about her climate priorities for her second term in Parliament, and her experiences of making climate legislation. 

You can find out more about the event here:

• Dr Monique Ryan MP: Climate Ambition video highlights with handy chapter points (linked here in bold).
• In Conversation: Dr Monique Ryan MP with energy analyst Tristan Edis
• YouTube Live with live comments
• Facebook album with comments, quotes and links
• Info page on climate ambition and climate targets
• Agenda with useful links and Tweet string for notes of the night.

Reflecting community concerns

Climate is a key concern for Kooyong constituents, but the policy of the Albanese government (particularly on new coal and gas) leaves much to be desired.

We wanted to know: what can Dr Ryan and other sympathetic members of the cross-bench do to influence Labor’s policies? What are the roadblocks to better climate policy and how can they be shifted? On which climate issues will Dr Ryan focus her attention in this 48th Parliament? 

 

Energy analyst, Tristan Edis

We were thrilled to welcome Tristan Edis to join Dr Ryan in conversation on these important questions. Tristan is an energy and carbon markets economist, who has been working since 2000 on commercial and policy initiatives aimed at creating a clean energy future. He has written extensively on how we can improve our energy system and markets to deliver reliable and affordable energy while also addressing climate change.

Tristan is the Director – Analysis and Advisory at Green Energy Markets, and a prolific author on energy and climate issues despite being called a “dishonest warming propagandist” by Rupert’s Terry McCrann in 2014!

Check out Tristan’s articles

• on solar, batteries, energy issues and transport at the AFR,
• on energy demand, decline of fossil fuels, rooftop PV market dominance and more at WattClarity,
• on Inside Story,
• in the Guardian – for instance as part of an expert panel responding to the 2035 target, or on our ‘impending gas shortfall‘
• or particularly in Renew Economy with over 60 articles – with recent commentary on the three hour free solar power proposal, subsidised home battery take up, renewables disinformation, taming the solar duck curve and many more.

 

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Dr Monique Ryan, formerly Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne Neurology Department, and a Professor of Medicine at Melbourne and Monash universities, is the Independent Member for Kooyong, and is currently the Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability. She served on the Inquiry into Nuclear Power Generation in Australia, and has served on committees related to human rights, electoral matters and the NDIS. On nuclear, she submitted additional comments to the Interim Report.

“An ongoing pursuit of nuclear energy options will only perpetuate and increase Australia’s reliance on coal and gas, while undermining policy and investment certainty in clean energy technologies and increasing climate pollution, thereby exposing Australians to accelerated climate harm.”

 

Dr Monique Ryan, Independent Member for Kooyong, Additional Comments, Interim Report into the Inquiry into Nuclear Power Generation in Australia

Dr Ryan was re-elected on a platform which included a strong focus on climate and environment as well as integrity and transparency in politics.

 

You can find out more here:

• Kooyong Candidates forum – her speech on YouTube, event blog with quotes and responses to audience questions,
• Kooyong Candidate Scorecard page – with full scoring rationale, and candidate policy documents
• Supporting forests – video highlights of Great Glider restoration project launch with Prof David Lindenmayer and Dr Ryan

 

Labor’s supermajority has not resulted in better policy outcomes

On the night, the Banquet Hall at Malvern town hall hosted this high energy event, with a very engaged audience keen to hear the discussion. This was especially pleasing as it was an unseasonably cold and wet November evening – last century Melbourne November weather!

 

Dr Ryan opened the evening with some short remarks from her own experience. Dr Ryan initially reflected on the contrast in her sense of possibility for climate action in her second term of parliament compared with her first.  In the first term there was a sense of optimism: initially the Albanese seemed to be sending out the right signals regarding climate policy. She expressed a strong sense of disappointment in the actions of the re-elected Albanese government. The current Labor government has a large majority – a super majority in fact – while the Coalition is in utter disarray. Even so the Albanese government is not acting strongly on climate nor protection of biodiversity.  

 

Climate minimalism

It is a slightly bleak time for those who care about climate action and biodiversity, Dr Ryan suggests.  She remarked that unlike the Morrison government which had in its ranks climate denialists the Albanese government is a climate minimalist government.

 

“So when I was elected, first elected to Parliament at in the middle of 2022, we had an experience as a nation, a government change from a group of climate denialist to a group of climate minimalists”.

 

 “I sort of thought when I was elected, oh goodness, we’ve got this Albanese government and they’re looking great and they’re saying all the right things.  We had the situation where the first piece of legislation that we passed was the Climate Change Act, and the government looked to be listening and to be consultative.

 

But I think is probably fair to say that since that time, many of us have been very disappointed by the Albanese government. For me, that disappointment has been particularly profound since the most recent election, where the government… got a massive majority, has 94 seats in the parliament, a super majority, in fact, and a coalition which is in utter disarray. And it’s still not acting on the things that we feel to be important. It set climate targets which were disappointingly modest, as you know, only 62 to 70% by 2035.

 

And then in the last two weeks in Parliament, we’ve seen the government push through the EPBC Act in a way that was extremely disappointing.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

 

Nature protection laws

Dr Ryan’s account of the recent actions of the Albanese government regarding the EPBC Act was not encouraging to those hoping that the Albanese government will be collaborative or consultative in achieving fit for purpose legislation. She described having only a fortnight to consider a 1500 page piece of complex legislation with constant reference to the existing EPBC Act. Despite the short timeframe, the crossbench put up 80 amendments to the EPBC bill, but the government accepted only one.

“The EPBC Act is complicated (1500 pages) and clouded by insertion of Ministerial discretion. Compounded by passage of FOI Bill in the House of Reps that can throw a cloak of secrecy over decision making.”

Robert Pettit, Lighter Footprints Committee

 

Nature laws and ministerial discretion

Dr Ryan is also concerned that despite all of the complex legislation for the EPBC bill the Minister can override decisions by ministerial discretion.

“And then someone said, what’s this thing about ministerial discretion? And turned out that we had this incredibly complex piece of legislation, much of which was still going to be left to delegated regulations. They said, we’re going to set up these environmental impact standards. It’s going to be great.

 

But then you realize that at the side is the situation where all of that is can be overrode and pushed aside by ministerial discretion.

 

The reality is that the government could decide to do oil and gas in my back garden tomorrow if it decides that that’s in the national interest, or if it wants to mine critical minerals for Donald Trump, because he’s putting the hard word on us as a nation, regardless of the environmental impact of that or where that was needing to happen.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Ministerial discretion and freedom of Information laws

If the new freedom of information laws get passed, which allow exemptions for “anything stamped as a cabinet document”, then we could be in a situation where fossil fuel projects deemed in the national interest are passed under ministerial exemption and “it doesn’t have to be released under freedom of information laws.”

“And I think you could just carry it through the cabinet room, and you’d probably get away with that sort of determination, which means that any ministerial determination that might be made in the future can be subject to cabinet and confidence rules, and we won’t understand.

 

The Minister won’t have to explain to the Australian people the basis of that decision. It felt a bit egregious that we debated those two pieces of legislation in the same week.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Who is the real opposition?

To achieve good outcomes, Dr Ryan thinks that it is important for there to be an effective opposition – and right now the Coalition is not an effective opposition.  She thinks that in many ways it is up to the cross bench –  they can achieve real outcomes since many of them are more experienced parliamentarians and are prepared to work hard, be nimble and understand procedures in parliament.  She says she looks at every piece of legislation through the climate and environment lens. 

“How do we address these issues and keep pressure on a government that has a super majority, which is a mild one, a mile wide but an inch thick?

 

Many of those seats that the government won in 2025 will be very susceptible in 2028. And so that’s something we need to keep in mind and plan for.

Dr Monique Ryan MP

When it comes to seizing opportunities, the cross bench also has to be skilled and be on top of Parliamentary procedure to get results: “David Pocock has used parliamentary procedure against the government twice this week in the Senate to great effect, and causing them much upset because he was clever and he knew procedure well.”  The cross bench was able to get changes in the Climate Change Act and National Anti Corruption Commission legislation.

 

“I’ve reintroduced my private member’s bill on lobbying and, on opening ministerial diaries, tightening enforcement of the lobbyists register and closing the revolving door between senior public service and government ministerial jobs and the industries that they serve, so that people like Christopher Pyne can’t leave government and then take up a job as a defense lobbyist nine days later, armed with the knowledge and the insider relationships that he had as defense minister.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

 

“Climate ambition and political integrity go hand in hand.”

Sarah Hegarty, Lighter Footprints Co-convenor

 

Climate and health policy area

Cross bench members all have specialised areas of interest when it comes to climate and integrity. “Zali has reintroduced her truth in political advertising legislation. Helen has reintroduced her whistleblower protections legislation. Sophie has reintroduced her private member’s bill about jobs for most months. Kate introduced this week a bill around postal voting, and has also introduced a bill around gambling reforms”.

“The cross bench is united in wanting to work on integrity measures, but we’ve made space for each other in the last three years to have our own pieces and our own areas of expertise and interest, and we’ve learned how to work together on those sorts of things in the last three years, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Dr Ryan’s particular area of interest in the climate space is climate and health, and she last week moved an amendment related to the EPBC bill, arguing that new developments should be obliged to take into account the impact on water and air quality, and again with regards to the Australian Centre for Disease Control. 

 

“I’m going to continue to push for clean air regulation. And it’s important. It’s important not just in the environment and in terms of fossil fuel developments and mining developments, it’s actually important if you go if you live anywhere near the northeast link, because air quality over in that part of the world right now is not perfect. It’s really it’s really affected by the developments in the infrastructure that have been putting in there.

 

And many people care very much about air quality and built structures, particularly since Covid. When the next pandemic comes along, as it will, air quality is going to be front of mind again as well.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

Decarbonising transport

The decarbonisation of transportation is also a focus, which Dr Ryan regards as important as transport emissions are rising quickly.  She would like to see the luxury car tax discount removed. 

“Monique Ryan made a strong statement that a road tax on EVs will not help decarbonise our transport sector.”

Sarah Hegarty, Lighter Footprints Committee

At present the  luxury car tax discount “makes it cheaper to buy a mega ute rather than an efficient luxury car”. She said “we have to get rid of things like the fuel tax credit system  … because we are basically giving the mining and heavy industries $10 billion a year to not decarbonise, which makes no sense at all.”

 

“We’re trying to get the government to take responsibility for things like our scope three emissions and the impact of them globally, rather than concentrating just on, carbon reporting and measurement of emissions domestically. So there’s lots to do. But I think it falls on the crossbench to do it.

 

And I think it falls on us to hold the government to account as best we can as effectively as we can for this term of government, but also to start planning for the next and to start planning for a time where we may be the only effective…Well, as we are now the only effective opposition.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

 

Policy and Community Engagement

Dr Ryan expressed that she is greatly appreciative of the willingness of many experts and community groups to give her advice to help her with policy framing.  She thinks they are prepared to give their time willingly as they know she makes evidence based decisions. The support of and engagement with the local community is critical to being an effective representative on climate.

 

Dr Ryan and Tristan Edis in Conversation

 

After presenting these reflections in her opening remarks, Dr Ryan was joined for a conversation-style interview by Mr Edis. Mr Edis drew on his long experience in energy and climate policy to lead the discussion, which spanned a wide variety of current topics. You can watch the conversation on our YouTube channel here.

 

Net Zero is a hot potato

 

The Coalition’s position on Net Zero: currently a topic of heated debate in the party room. Both speakers were critical of the Coalition’s lack of credible climate policy, and pessimistic about the prospects for any climate ambition to be maintained in Coalition policy after the current round of talks. 

 

Dr Ryan noted that “at the last two elections, [Australians] have twice voted for action on climate change. They do believe in it and they do want action on it. They’re a bit concerned about the cost. They’re certainly concerned about the time and how long it’s taking”, She believes most Australians are eager for Parliament to “just get on with it!” regarding climate, which she sees as “the most existential issue that we face”.

 

“As a Kooyong resident, I’m constantly hearing from members of my community how important climate is to them.”

Sarah Hegarty, Lighter Footprints Co-convenor

 

 

 

Nuclear power

The nuclear debate: a discussion which both speakers have contributed to by participating in the recent Parliamentary inquiry into nuclear. Mr Edis pondered whether the Coalition’s nuclear proposals attracted genuinely climate-motivated voters at the May election; and while Dr Ryan acknowledged that it was an attractive proposition to some, she says her research and experience as part of the Parliamentary inquiry committee has reaffirmed her belief that it is too slow and too costly to be a useful solution for Australia.

Climate targets

Labor’s climate ambition and 2035 targets were unanimously agreed to fall short of what the science demands. The speakers discussed the factors they believe are limiting Labor’s ambition on climate policy, including worries around community resistance, organised anti-renewable lobbying, and providing supply certainty to industry. 

 

Although lack of ambition is “disappointing” and presents a challenge, Dr Ryan suggested that we can still aim to improve on Labor’s 2035 targets – and singled out decarbonising transport as a field of particular interest. This was very well received by the audience!

Dr Ryan talked about the complex calculations and compromises on come climate bills – for instance on the flawed Safeguard Mechanism bill, FOI and EPBC legislation

 

What goes into policy outcomes

 

Working effectively in Parliament. Asked what positives she took away from working with her Parliamentary colleagues, especially in the nuclear inquiry, Dr Ryan reflected that most committees are extremely collegial. The nuclear inquiry was an exception, with a more combative atmosphere – ultimately, she said it was hard to name positives from that particular committee experience, except for the chance it offered to hear from Traditional Custodians.

 

Equity, cost of living and climate

Responding to a question about how those really struggling to pay for the next meal, or the next energy bill can afford to even think about climate action, Dr Ryan reminded us that these struggles are very real. So a constituent might say “You don’t understand, you know, yes, climate change, but I’m dealing with cost of living pressures.” And “I might say, ‘What are the things that are your biggest concerns? Let me guess. Energy prices and how much it costs for electricity and heating?'”

“How are we going to make that cheaper. Get gas out of the mix because that’s the most important input into electricity pricing. So if we can get gas out and transition to renewables, the price of electricity will fall.

 

We also need to look at the electricity market itself actually in how electricity is priced.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Another key issue is insurance costs, given that cost of climate impacts across the whole country is driving up insurance prices. “Your insurance premiums have gone up hugely. Not because of floods and fires in Kooyong, but because of floods and fires in the rest of the country and the impact that they’ve had on insurance costs.”

“The intersection of climate change and rising insurance costs is a huge issue in affordability.”

Sarah Hegarty, Lighter Footprints Co-convenor

Dr Ryan mentions other solutions to the intersection between the climate crisis and the cost of living including making it easier to buy and EV even if it is a second hand one, and stopping subsidising fossil fuel companies, and putting that money into helping households.

“BHP got $600 million in the fuel tax credit. Rio Tinto got 400 million.” We could save $1 billion there just with those two companies and get them to use any fuel tax credits that they get for decarbonization of that industry. “I’m going to limit  the credits that they get. I’m going to take that money. I’m going to put it into helping households get access to storage and to to solar and to renewable energy, but also to home modifications, like basic insulation.”

“I want to save the world and stop carbon emissions, but that’s not real to people who are struggling to put food on the table. But if your groceries are more expensive because of a flood in Queensland or New South Wales, you can see the immediate impact of climate change and people are going to start seeing those discrete and obvious things more and more often if we don’t take action.”

Monique Ryan MP

 

“We need reasonable insulation in homes rather than diesel fuel subsidies.”

Rob Pettit, Lighter Footprints Committee Member

 

Audience Questions

 

Question One: National Climate Risk Assessment 

How should leaders respond to this difficult report?

Dr Ryan started by saying “they should read it”. Denial is all too easy, so this point is a pretty good starting point. “And if if they are a leader of substance, they’ll take those things on board.” Leaders should “respect the work and the expertise of the scientists and economists have come up with those pieces” and people an action pathway.

“We might not have the answers right now, and the targets that we have might not be strong enough. And perhaps not all the technology is in place right now, but we have exceeded expectations in many times and on many occasions in the past.

 

We can do it again. I believe that we will do it again, but we have to get going on that process and we have to be open and committed to that.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

Question Two: Gas Futures strategy

Dr Ryan started by stating that the government’s Gas Futures strategy is “deeply problematic”, given that it extends into “the second half of this century” – instead “I would hope that we can, render it obsolete in the next 5 to 10 years.”

 

Question Three: Why is the cost of climate inaction not highlighted?

Drawing on the analogy of preventative health, Dr Ryan noted that it is always harder to prove a negative. Despite 90% of all deaths result from chronic disease, and a payoff between two and nine times for every dollar spent it is very difficult to get governments to fund prevention.

“I think to some extent, perhaps the cost of climate inaction is a bit like that. People don’t see it. They can’t appreciate it even with all the extreme weather events and costs of bushfires and floods” said Dr Ryan, particularly given immediate cost of living pressures.

 

Question Four: What about COP 31?

Dr Ryan expressed pessimism about whether would Australia would be able host the next COP. “Well I don’t think we’re going to get it. I do think that it would have been a great thing for us. I think the economic benefit would have been huge for us holding it.”

“But I think also it would have involved us committing to regional activities and to potentially better, more effective, more suited targets. And particularly I think it would have been a demonstration of a show of faith and something that we would have done with Pacific neighbours.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Question Five: What can we do to stop native forest logging nationally?

Expressing frustration about this perennial issue, Dr Ryan noted the government did not commit recent amendments that would have abolished the national forest agreements and put native forests back under the EPBC Act under federal regulation, also trying to reduce deforestation. The government has not supported many of Greame Samuel’s recommendations, and the worry is the EPBC legislation may pass the Senate with LNP rather than Greens support, “which would be a very bad outcome for us.”

 

Question Six: Why do we charge little or nothing when we allow fossil fuel companies to extract and sell our gas?

Dr Ryan said that the government could change this by regulation fairly easily but was reluctant to do so. “Unfortunately, I think that reflects the influence on the government of the multinational gas companies. Which is a really tough thing to have to say. It’s really it’s incredibly disappointing.”

Question Seven: Pragmatism and the cross bench

“Don’t forget the CPRS. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” Dr Ryan said it had been difficult to vote for, or not for, deeply flawed legislation. On balance she had voted for the Safeguard Mechanism, but didn’t vote for the recent EPBC legislation.

“And I knew that if I didn’t vote for it, the liberals will be saying in 2028, she voted against nature and environmental legislation, but I couldn’t vote for it because it was a dog.

 

I just couldn’t. And, I you know, the first I was really torn. But the more I looked at it, the more deficiencies I found in it. And that was it.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Question Eight: Transparency and FOI

FOI really matters, Dr Ryan spoke about recent revelations that some of the millions we give to Nauru to house a few asylum seekers was “being funneled from the Nauruan government to bikie gangs. And that’s information that’s come out through whistleblowers.”

She hopes that the recent FOI bill will not pass the Senate.

“I do not think it’s going to get through in the Senate. So that’s good because it’s opposed by every single person other than the government in the Senate. And I don’t think that the liberals will cave on that. It was an appallingly bad piece of legislation. So I think it’s doomed.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

Question Nine: Price gouging on the grid

Tristan Edis explained that with multiple companies delegating the control of their batteries to “essentially companies that have got very clever software that analyzes what’s going on in the electricity market and has incredible computational power” then there is a large potential for uncompetitive behaviour. “Oh, well, if you did this with the battery and you withhold a little bit of capacity, then you jack the price up and then you make a lot more money from the remaining amount of capacity

“Now, the problem part of the issue is lots of people have delegated their batteries to these algorithmic bidding companies. And now there’s an issue. Wait a second. You guys are meant to be in competition with each other, but you’ve also delegated your batteries to this one company that controls them all, and then probably can coordinate the bidding between them all to control, withhold capacity to to essentially jack the price up and then make lots of money.”

Tristan Edis, Green Energy Markets

Tristan also talked about “incredibly ridiculous hype about, nuclear becoming suddenly cheap. At the moment in the US, this is a very investor hot area”, in other words, the idea that nuclear would become affordable on the back of AI is “essentially a speculative bubble”.  This is shaping up to be a classic pump and dump.

“What would you, you know, Microsoft, Google, all these guys are doing all these deals with nuclear companies. And I said, has anyone spent any money on these nuclear power plants? And the answer is no. There are all memorandums of understanding that meant nothing.”

Tristan Edis, Green Energy Markets

 

 

Question Ten: Emissions reduction in local governments

Dr Ryan said that although Councils limited powers and resources for serious area-wide emissions reduction there is still a lot that can be done, particularly if they work towards self-generation rather than just offsets, and lobbying State Ministers over regulations and funding.

 

Question Eleven: Duty of Care bill

Apart from some concerns about the legality of it, it is an important area to proceed with.

“I think it’s a good thing that it has been proposed all the way, and I think it should continue to be proposed, and we should continue to have this discussion. The recent International Court of Justice finding and other findings internationally are bringing more and more to the fore the concept of a duty of care to subsequent generations.”

Dr Monique Ryan MP

 

Community Collaboration

This robust discussion made for engaging viewing. Although the challenges ahead for Australia’s 48th parliament were outlined in sometimes confronting detail, many avenues for action were also identified. The speakers were united in the conviction that climate action is not only electorally and economically necessary, but can be achieved in a fair and equitable fashion – especially with an ambitious team of crossbenchers pushing the Labor Government to aim higher!