House debates

Monday, 21 October 2019

Private Members' Business

Climate Change

11:01 am

Photo of Bert Van ManenBert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was very interesting to listen to the member for Macnamara's contribution. It reflects many of the others on that side over the past half hour or so; once again, high on rhetoric but with no solutions. The important thing is it's actually this government that is taking this seriously. It is this government that has made it very clear, in the recent election on 18 May, that it is going to honour its international commitments with respect to reducing emissions and dealing with the impacts of a changing climate.

It is important that we do take this seriously for any number of reasons, least of all the impact on our economy if we don't take seriously the impacts of the changing climate. This is what the government is actually doing. We're working across the community and across the various levels of government to put in place practical solutions to manage these risks. We're working towards developing and implementing through investments: an investment of some $24 million over the six years from 2014-15 to the National Environmental Science Program and Climate Change Hub; some $255 million over the 10 years from 2015-16 to enhance Australia's Antarctic capabilities; another $6.1 million over the three years from 2018-19 to provide the electricity sector with improved climate and extreme weather information; and another $25 million in 2019-20 towards the establishment of the National Centre for Coasts, Environment and Climate at Point Nepean. It is these investments that are the key to ensuring that we manage the impacts of a changing climate.

More locally, I have seen the benefits of work that has been done over many years through planting additional trees and revegetating our local communities—improvements in water quality and improvements in the built environment. It is these practical solutions that we believe are going to help achieve the goals that we need to achieve. We all agree in this place that we need to leave the planet and the environment in a better place than when we found it. In addition, we can look at the investments in clean energy across the country not just at a national level but from some of the state governments as well. In 2018, an estimated $13.2 billion was invested in clean energy technologies in Australia, and this builds on the estimated $10 billion invested in 2017.

As I go around my electorate, there are a number of businesses—and the number increases by the day—whose focus is on recycling and improving how we use our waste—that we don't just dump it into landfills, that we're able to recycle that waste and reuse it. Doing that ensures that we don't deplete our natural resources as much as we otherwise would. It is these practical outcomes that we are seeing every day in electorates right across this country. Recently we announced a $6 million investment with Logan City Council in one of our waste water treatment facilities to treat solid waste by burning it at high temperatures to create biochar. It is a range of those examples that we're implementing, as well as meeting our emissions reduction targets, as we've committed to through the Paris Agreement, and they will deliver on our commitments to manage the impacts of a changing climate.

Importantly, one of the things that we do need to do is ensure that we have a strong and robust economy so we have the funds to manage these impacts and pay for the new investments and new technologies that are going to be developed over the coming five, 10, 15 or 20 years that will help further mitigate and deal with these issues. But it is these practical outcomes, these practical investments right across our economy, that this government is undertaking because of its strong economic management and foresight to deal with the issues of a changing climate.

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