Labor is promising more ambitious policies than the coalition at the next election to tackle climate change after Australia's bushfire crisis.
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Opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler also wants the government to allow a debate on climate change when parliament returns in February.
"Hopefully we could fashion a bipartisan position," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
Labor is calling for the government to undertake a national audit of flora and fauna destroyed in the bushfires.
It also wants to bring forward a meeting of Australia's environment ministers.
Mr Butler said the bushfire crisis had raised the tempo of the debate around climate change in Australia and overseas.
He said Labor's focus was on the current emergency.
"There will be a need for a very thorough inquiry into these events and also a full national debate about how we protect future generations around climate change impacts," Mr Butler.
"What people can be assured of is that we will have a more ambitious climate change policy at the next election than the coalition."
Labor leader Anthony Albanese toured regional Queensland in December to show his support for the coal industry.
He repeatedly stated cutting Australia's coal exports would force other countries to import dirtier coal that would create more carbon emissions.
Mr Albanese says the bushfires have not impacted his support for coal exports.
"We think climate change is real and we think that you need to drive down emissions," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Butler said if the world was going to meet international greenhouse gas targets, fossil fuel use would have to decline sharply.
As recently as Sunday, the prime minister claimed his government had always made the connection between climate change and extreme weather conditions.
Australian Associated Press
