Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Today has certainly been a very difficult day for Australians because we have been, as we have been for a very long time, bearing the twin crises: the COVID crisis and the climate crisis. People from across my electorate and from across this country have a deep anxiety inside them that has been really coming through today in the wake of a couple of things. In the COVID crisis, it's been in the wake of the member for Dawson standing up in this chamber and disgracing this House by claiming that masks don't work and that lockdowns don't work. In the climate crisis, of course, last night we had the IPCC report in relation to climate change. It's been very disappointing that the government have been dodging, weaving and ducking in trying to avoid all responsibility in climate change as they do with every issue. It has not been surprising that the same man who was in this place claiming that masks don't work and that lockdowns don't work is the man who has been running conspiracy theories that the climate change data of the Bureau of Meteorology has somehow been faked. He uses social media to promote this disinformation and of course the government, led by the Prime Minister, gives these deliberate acts of disinformation tacit endorsement by turning the other cheek, by looking away and by refusing to condemn these words.

When it comes to the climate crisis, ideas that somehow climate change is made up, that it's not true, are dangerous. They're dangerous because they are a disincentive to real action. Fortunately for all of us, we have, against this very fringe mentality that is, as I said, given tacit endorsement by the leadership of the government who do not openly condemn these sorts of disinformation programs, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their report from last night. That report makes very clear the significance of the challenge that the world is facing in relation to climate change. It pulls no punches. It says Australian land areas have warmed by around 1.4 degrees Celsius. It says that annual temperature changes have emerged above natural variability in all land regions. It says heat extremes have increased, cold extremes have decreased and these trends are projected to continue. It says that the frequency of extreme fire weather days has increased and the fire season has become longer since 1950 at many locations across Australasia. It says that the intensity, frequency and duration of fire weather events are projected to increase throughout Australia and New Zealand. Heavy rainfall and river floods are projected to increase and an increase in marine heatwaves and ocean acidity has been observed and is projected. Sandstorms and dust storms are projected to increase throughout Australia.

There is much more in this sobering report, and it's this report that is really giving voice today to the fears of Australians, the fears that this country lacks the leadership it needs to take real action on climate change at home and to take real leadership on the international stage. It's giving voice to the fears about what sorts of lives our families will have, we ourselves will have and our fellow Australians will have in the mid-2030s, if we hit 1.5 degrees across the world. People are genuinely afraid, and what they're looking for from this government is leadership. But what they are not getting from this government is leadership. They're getting ducking, weaving and dodging, and we just saw it again from the minister who had been so ably demolished by the shadow minister, the member for Shortland, in advance. I thank the member for Shortland for a terrific speech that I'm sure will resonate across Australia. We know that people have this fear, and it's a legitimate fear. It's a legitimate fear because we are going through these massive crises at the moment and we do have a leadership vacuum at the top of our country. What can we do about it? It's very clear to me: we need and we deserve a government that will take real action on the COVID pandemic—timely, thoughtful, considered, rapid action—and a government that will take real action on climate change. You've heard from Labor multiple policies on climate change. We will win the economic argument and we will bring people with us because, at the end of the day, this is a massive crisis and Australia deserves a government that will lead.

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