Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Some years ago I covered Cyclone Pam, in Vanuatu. It was an experience, as a journalist, that was very challenging, in a community that was devastated by an unusual storm. This is happening in communities now all over the world. Although this government has stepped further into the Pacific as a priority, I think it's important we note that much more needs to be done. It is a welcome development, particularly, that the foreign minister, Penny Wong, has recognised that renewed engagement in the Pacific is a priority; her first foray to the Pacific was an important signal of this fact. But my position is that we have ignored this region for far too long, and it will take long and consistent efforts in restoration to restore the confidence of those nearest neighbours. It's very easy to lose such confidence but much harder to restore it.

Many years ago, some will recall, we won plaudits for standing up to and opposing French nuclear testing in the Pacific, and taking concrete steps to back up that opposition. But that was a long time ago. It should come as no surprise that, at a time of geopolitical fragility and uncertainty, the Pacific should once again be a cockpit of big-power rivalry. We left a vacuum, and big powers seek to fill that. As a middle power, but a middle power with an outsized role in the Pacific, we need to tread carefully, and we need to use our relations with our most important ally and our biggest trading partner to make sure the Pacific does not become the cockpit not merely of big-power competition but of conflict. We've played this role before, and we can do it again.

Engagement, though, is one thing; actions are another. We've not yet done the one thing that the islands of the Pacific desire above everything else. This motion asks us to commend the many Pacific island countries that continue to be world leading in their commitment to addressing climate change. Yes, they deserve our commendation but actions speak louder than words. They deserve the quality of actions on our part that will help minimise the real likelihood that some of these island nations will disappear beneath the waves as a result of climate change. Like us, they will suffer from extreme weather events and higher temperatures that will affect fishing grounds on whose resources many of them depend.

As I said, some years ago I was in Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam had hit the archipelago and caused untold devastation. Trees were stripped of leaves as if a bushfire had been through. Crops, like bananas, were flattened, houses were wrecked, and food and clean water were in short supply. Recovery from these events is slow. As they occur closer and closer together, recovery will become more and more challenging and expensive. Real climate action is needed and so is risk management and mitigation, as the impact of climate change has already been baked in for decades.

This parliament took a significant step by entrenching climate change action in law, but we all know that a target of 43 per cent is not enough. It is not enough to ensure we keep global warming below an increase of two degrees, let alone 1.5 degrees. Drought in China, extreme heat in the EU and US and floods in Pakistan show clearly that we do need to do more. What will be our response to the next disaster in our neighbourhood? How do we think the nations of the Pacific, our nearest neighbours—our family, as this nation calls the largely low-lying islands of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia—think of us, given what we do, rather than what we say?

Less than two weeks ago, this government announced approval of nearly 47,000 kilometres for new offshore gas and oil exploration. As others have noted, the terms the minister used to justify this could easily have spilled from the mouth of her coalition predecessor: 'vital for the economy'; 'central to alleviating future domestic gas shortfalls'. Yet these sites would take years, if not decades, to go into production. The message this announcement sends to our Pacific friends is contradictory. We talk about our commitment to net zero, yet nothing has changed. The islands of the Pacific need us to do better. Thank you.

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