Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for presenting this opportunity for the parliament to discuss drought, agriculture and climate change. Many of us in this parliament do represent electorates affected at one time or another by drought, bushfires and floods. There would be few in this place who would say the events of recent years have not been the worst in living memory. History and science tell us that it is the worst not only in living memory but perhaps in recorded history.

While farmers are by their nature a resilient and optimistic breed, the science, the data, the mapping and the research all point to hotter and drier times ahead, more extreme weather events and more unpredictability. While we may think of recent summers as the hottest in 100 years, we should start thinking of them as the coolest for the next 100. 'The rains will come again' is a refrain I often hear from farmers in the midst of drought, but when was the last good season of downpour, the last winter of heavy snow, the last weeks of springtime showers? What evidence can we point to that can tell us with any certainty that the rains will indeed come again in anything like the measure that they used to and that they need to?

Climate change should not now be and should never have been a tool for political pointscoring. That climate change has been fashioned into a weapon between the political Left and Right is to be deeply regretted. Science and facts know no ideology. All of us in this chamber and the parliaments, the congresses and the assemblies of the world must take collective global action, irrespective of our political colours, because climate change is undeniably the single most important area of public policy that confronts humanity today. We share one planet and one atmosphere. We are linked by the same oceans and skies. What we do in Australia affects our neighbours and, likewise, what they do affects us. We have a shared responsibility that transcends national borders.

Climate change action may not be the most electorally appealing subject nor an area of policy that will garner the most media attention or, frankly, the most votes. But historically defence, national security and immigration are also areas that have generally flown under the electoral radar while remaining of critical policy importance. Elections are generally won and lost on economic arguments, but voters still expect us to deal maturely with other critical issues that don't get the same air time. You can be a coalminer and still want climate change action. We all drive cars and fly in aeroplanes. The challenge is to recognise that emissions are created and we must work to reduce them where we can.

This parliament stands united in seeking to grow Australia's agricultural output. We're currently inquiring into the opportunities and impediments to growing Australian agriculture to $100 billion by 2030. Climate change is one of those impediments. Agriculture is the most exposed sector in the country to climate change: I stood up in this parliament in the last sitting to draw attention to the Farmers For Climate Action report that calls for a national strategy on climate change, a transition to clean energy generation and the adoption of wider carbon capture and storage mechanisms. I am pleased that the member for Indi and the new Parliamentary Friends of Climate Change Action have taken up that call. Likewise, I support the National Farmers Federation's call for a coherent national drought policy and a $1 billion ecoservices fund for farmers. They do incredibly important work and should be paid for it. The government could do much worse than take up the suggestion to implement these policy initiatives, which are drawn from people who have on-the-ground experience in our regions and who know firsthand the impacts of drought and climate change on agriculture.

Australia has a great history of innovation, and we need to draw on that legacy now like never before. From restoring canopy to encourage rainfall to capturing carbon to improve our soil and from tackling desertification and salinity to implementing modern livestock management, aquaculture and clean energy generation, there is much we can and must do to diversify, enhance and promote Australian agriculture in the 21st century, and climate change action must be a part of it.

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