Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just say in response to that insult from the member for Flynn that a true reflection of a fool is that he doesn't recognise his own idiocy. I really think that the pseudoscience created by the member for Flynn was just another reflection of the horrible last 10 years in the climate debate.

Climate change has been talked about since the 19th century. The effects on our climate are reflected in our health outcomes. That has been well recognised throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In Australia we're finally taking definitive action to have a climate change policy that reflects the true science. Rising emissions are leading to increased atmospheric CO2. It's quite correct that the carbon dioxide content of our atmosphere is small, but very small increases in atmospheric CO2 have a very potent effect on the warming of the earth and on our inability to reflect that heat back into the galaxy. It's well and truly time to develop a climate policy, an energy policy, that works for all Australians.

Climate change affects the whole social and environmental determinants of health. Climate change is estimated to cause at least a quarter of a million unnecessary deaths around the world every year. It costs around US$4 billion every year in adverse effects. It's the biggest health threat that's facing humanity. It is really time that we recognise that. I am really glad that we now have a government with policies in place that will do what we should be doing for climate and energy policy and should have been doing many, many years ago. We have had 10 years of inaction, 10 years of worsening emissions, and 10 years of a lack of surety and clarity for investors.

I am very concerned about the health effects of climate change, and certainly my electorate has been one of the areas around Sydney that has been more severely affected than many. We have had terrible floods. We have had heatwaves. We have had increased hospital admissions with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and neurological disease. We have had annual days in Macarthur with temperatures over 45 degrees, more than we have ever had before. We have had record temperatures in our schools and a lack of ability to manage this in any effective way. We have had children admitted to hospital with sunstroke. We have had children who have died from severe sun injury and heat stroke, and we have had elderly people die in their homes from heat stroke. These are just some of the effects of climate change that we have seen in the last few years in my electorate of Macarthur. We have seen increases in infectious diseases and, as the average global temperature increases, they are likely to get worse. We have had mosquito-borne infectious disease, food-borne infectious diseases such as Salmonella, waterborne infectious disease, and we will continue to see this worsening unless we can control our climate.

Yes, Australia has a relatively small effect on global emissions but it is an effect that can be reduced and we should, like a good world neighbour, do the right thing and introduce adequate climate policy, which this government is doing by introducing the Climate Change Bill 2022 and the Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2022. We have had increases in mortality in my own electorate from respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, neurological disease. We have had deaths from flooding. We have had deaths, as I mentioned, from sunstroke. We have had increases in mental health difficulties because of huge temperatures. We have had pregnancy loss because of heat exhaustion. There are nutritional effects of climate change, and we have had an increase in skin diseases and allergies that are a reflection of very high summer temperatures. There are occupational health injuries from manual labour for people who work in industry, and we have a large industrial group in Macarthur. We have had direct effects, like I have said, of heat injury. We have had extreme weather events causing loss of life and injury. You may remember the most recent Hawkesbury-Nepean floods had a severe effect on many of the smaller suburbs and towns around my electorate of Macarthur.

There is evidence that these rising temperatures have increased the risk of cataracts and corneal damage. We have decreases in quality of life like impaired sleep and impaired ability to be active, leading to increases in obesity and diabetes. There are increases in asthma and respiratory admissions with chronic airway disease to our local hospitals, and I have certainly seen that in children in my electorate. These links are well known yet we have had 10 years of inaction. We have had nothing from the conservative forces on the other side but vituperation, insults, anxiety, conflicts. Who could forget the member for Cook's really terrible act of bringing a lump of coal into parliament? Yet we have on this side—

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