Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Today I introduce the Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation) Bill 2025. This is landmark legislation to protect our communities, our economy and our environment from the escalating risks of climate change.

This bill ensures that we have independent, regular climate risk assessments and a fully funded national adaptation plan, so that Australia is prepared, resilient and able to thrive in a changing climate.

It's about keeping families safe, safeguarding livelihoods, and making sure Australia can stand strong in the face of accelerating climate risks and impacts.

We cannot afford to leave our safety, our economy and our prosperity to chance or the current piecemeal, reactive approach where the government only turns up after events, keen for the photo ops.

We need an independent plan grounded in evidence, transparency and accountability. Ignoring or downplaying the problem and threat does not make it go away. It just puts Australian lives at risk.

In many parts of Australia, people are already living the reality of escalating climate risks, like coastal erosion, flooding and bushfires, communities and industries disrupted and spiralling insurance premiums.

The New South Wales State Disaster Mitigation Plan warns that, by 2060, the Northern Beaches local government area alone could face close to $1 billion in annual damages from extreme weather. Currently disasters are costing Australia $38 billion per year and that is scheduled to double by 2060.

Household costs from extreme weather impacts are set to rise from about $888 per year at the moment to $2½ thousand per year by 2050.

Local governments are left bearing the increased costs of road maintenance, storm and disaster repairs, and residents are the ones who end up paying sky-high rates.

We are standing at a crossroads. The Albanese government is withholding currently its one-off National Climate Risk Assessment.

The report has been finished for months, and those who are familiar with the report have described its findings as 'dire', 'diabolical' and 'extremely confronting'.

It contains suburb-level mapping of inundation, projections of drought, and alarming forecasts around agriculture and health.

This report was meant to inform our national response and should drive an ambitious target of at least 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2035—but what we are going to have is not going to be released ahead of that target at the moment. We need to know that national risk assessment. It will drive our mitigation and will inform the ambition to mitigate as fast as possible and drive investment and innovation.

If the government was genuine in addressing climate risks, it would debate this bill and legislate a national risk framework.

Instead, it is giving debate time for the coalition's continued climate denial. The coalition is more and more on the fringe and irrelevant when it comes to this core and essential policy debate. The question now for the government is: will it act and genuinely protect our communities or just be a little bit less bad than the coalition?

In 2021, I launched Climate Act Now—a campaign to legislate net zero and a clear path to emissions reduction. It succeeded. We have legislated net zero. This was an important commitment, but now the government must legislate a national risk framework to keep our communities safe.

We can still prevent the worst of catastrophic climate scenarios, but we also have to be honest with the Australian people and prepare for what is coming.

We know that we have a level of climate impact already locked in due to past emissions.

Adaptation is about not giving up—it's about implementing smart investment to safeguard our economy and communities.

Research shows that for every $1 invested and spent on resilience, you save up to $11 on recovery costs. Yet the government continues to spend only 13 per cent of the disaster budget on resilience and adaptation.

Last year, I convened a climate risk roundtable with experts, local government, industry and academics.

What I heard was confronting—the scale of the risk is enormous but so is our capacity to protect ourselves if we act decisively.

This bill provides us with the framework for us to get adaptation right. It provides for independent national climate change risk assessments every five years, free from political interference, publicly released and comprehensive.

It provides a national adaptation plan in response to each assessment—fully funded with clear strategies, timelines and measurable outcomes, and an annual progress report to parliament, ensuring government is held accountable.

Climate related reports, including declassified versions of the intelligence assessments—the ONI report—must be released to the public.

The federal budget must also include climate risk costs so the economic reality is clear.

This bill is about certainty, independence and preparation—ensuring that future governments take climate risk seriously, regardless of who is in power.

Last week we saw the Treasurer fail to address or include in his roundtable the impacts of climate change and rising risk. We cannot insure our way out of the climate crisis. We must have visibility of that national risk framework.

Australia can't afford to keep reacting after disasters strike.

Planning for climate impacts is crucial—it's how we protect our economy, our communities and our way of life.

This bill is common sense, fiscally responsible and future focused.

It's time for a reality check—climate change is here; it's costly and it's accelerating. The Nationals and the LNP don't want targets or to reduce emissions, but they're always keen for handouts when disasters strike.

We need to start preparing. Other jurisdictions and other countries have the tools, knowledge and ability to adapt, prepare and thrive.

The question now for the Albanese government is: what will they do? Will they be brave and honest enough with the Australian people and actually address these risks or remain shackled to fossil fuel interests and outdated policies?

This 48th Parliament is an opportunity to protect Australia. Will the government be reckless and ignore this responsibility?

I urge the government and all the new MPs who have come into this place to urge for the debate and support this Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation) Bill 2025.

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