Speech to Chambers

Delivered by Councillor Seal Chong Wah, General Business Speech on Net Zero & the Liberal-National Party, 2nd December 2025

I am speaking about ‘Net Zero’ carbon emission targets and the Liberal and National political alliance.

The federal Liberal Party and the National Party have now officially abandoned their commitment to Net Zero emissions by 2050.  They have dropped any pretence that the Liberal-National Coalition cares about the future of our fragile eco-system or the ability of our current and future generations to avoid extreme hardship on this planet.  While 145 countries covering 77% of global emissions have adopted or pledged net zero targets, the LNP have chosen to embrace outdated energy systems that are now destabilising our civilisation. 

The Paris Agreement aimed to keep global warming “well below 2°C degrees above pre-industrial levels.” Yet the world has already reached 1.5°C degrees in 2024, and the latest science is that we are heading toward at least 2.5°C degrees global warming. The international political and scientific consensus is clear - if nations are serious about the Paris Agreement, they must make deep emission cuts and become ‘net zero’ as soon as possible. 

The Liberal National Alliance dropping Net Zero targets is not a minor policy shift. It is a strategic abandonment of a liveable future, leaving ordinary people to face a world of chaos, hardship, mental health crises, food system disruption, and untold deaths from unprecedented extreme weather events. 

At the state level it is the same story. The Queensland LNP is repealing every renewable target of the former government. They have reversed the plan to close coal-fired power stations by 2035 and have reset every coal plant to its full lifespan. 

And here in Brisbane, this LNP council has, for the last 20 years, also been dismantling the city’s climate resilience while abandoning its own emissions targets. In 2017 they committed to cutting Council’s operational emissions by 30% by 2032. Eight years later, emissions have not fallen—they are 3% higher. 

You heard here in these chambers today that the Lord Mayor claimed that the trend of council emissions is going down. If council emissions were going down over 8 years and there was just a blip last year, then surely there would still be an overall decrease. So why have we seen an overall increase in emissions over the last 8 years? 

This LNP administration is also spending less on climate resilience, cutting over $70 million this financial year from parks, stormwater and flood mitigation - the very systems that protect us from climate change impacts.  They are reducing the very greenspace that would have mitigated climate change impacts, by altering the City Plan so Brisbane will lose 290 hectares of greenspace per capita over the next decade. 

But of course, there’s more.

ABC investigations have exposed that the LNP have been degrading our city’s, critical ‘heatwave-protecting’, tree canopy - over the last two decades.  And, while 10,000 additional properties were added to the ‘high-risk flood overlay’ along just one creek system this August, the LNP continues to encourage more development in flood-prone areas. Urban planning is not being used by the LNP to make Brisbane safer, it is making us more vulnerable.

It is now clear that after 20 years of LNP rule, Brisbane is becoming less resilient and less safe in a climate-crisis future.

At every level of government, federal, state and council, the ‘Liberal National Alliance’ has abandoned its emissions targets, abandoned its renewable energy commitments, and abandoned all pretense of climate responsibility. 

While tens of thousands of climate scientists are providing the best scientific data and climate projections available, this Liberal National two-ring circus has become a party of ‘science deniers’. They have become a fringe party of ‘climate deniers’ and ‘conspiracy theorists’.

The Australian Government’s National Risk Assessment warns Queensland will suffer:

• Devastating Category 4 and 5 cyclones with infrastructure damage beyond anything we have experienced
• Four times more lethal heatwaves - with up to five times more ‘heat deaths’
• 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding
• A half-trillion-dollar hit to property values within 25 years
• More severe flooding that would see whole suburbs becoming un-insurable due to flood risk. 

The Climate Council is clear: only strong net zero targets give Australia any chance of helping to keep warming below 2 °C. 

2.5 to 3 °C warming pushes the planet towards further irreversible tipping points, including glacial collapse, and sea level rises that will wipe out coastal cities.  This is the future the LNP is choosing.

Our responsibility is to choose differently - to take the risks seriously, to reduce emissions meaningfully, and protect the people of Brisbane and Australia.

This Liberal National Alliance has abandoned the most basic obligation we have - to protect our children and to protect our future.

For most Australians however, it is clear that we must act urgently for a liveable future that does not abandon our people and planet - but takes on the great challenge of our modern age - by acting boldly on our climate reality.