Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government sees climate change and the reaction to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change as just another piece of political management to be bluffed through until everyone loses interest. We have seen, in my view, an amazing display of complacency from the government, the Prime Minister and his followers. It has been striking, however, that we have not heard much this week from the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell. I suspect this is because the minister has actually been persuaded by the experts in his department and by the CSIRO, as well as by the Stern review, of the seriousness of the climate change issue. But, like his predecessor, Senator Hill, as he then was, he is outnumbered by the ‘climate sceptics’ in the cabinet, led in public by the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources—although I think, from my observation, the Prime Minister is still at heart a climate sceptic too.

The honourable member for Grayndler, the shadow minister for the environment, has in these last days—at his passionate best—cut through the complacency of the government frontbench on the climate change issue. For his pains, he has been ridiculed and suspended from the House. Time, however, will prove that he was right. As the Stern review documents, climate change is happening right now. It is affecting our environment, our economy, our society now—today. This situation will only get worse. At the moment it is possible to argue, incorrectly but at least plausibly, that what we are seeing in Australia at present has no connection with climate change but is a normal fluctuation of the climatic cycle.

I am not surprised at the cynicism of the Prime Minister, who is mainly interested in the electoral cycle, in trying to mount superficial scare campaigns over this issue. But I am really astonished at the complacency of backbench members of the government over this issue, particularly those representing rural, regional and coastal seats. Do they think their constituents are enjoying the reality of climate change as it is being experienced in regional Australia at present? Do they think it will have no consequences if it is allowed to go on?

Government members have been lecturing us all week about how they will not sign up to Kyoto because they want to protect jobs in Australia. Let me ask the honourable members for Leichhardt, Herbert and Dawson how their constituents will fare if the Great Barrier Reef is bleached to death by a rise in water temperatures in the Coral Sea. Do they think tourists will come from all over the world to look at dead coral? Have these members read the Stern review? It specifically names the Great Barrier Reef as one of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. Page 57 of part II of the review points out that a mere one degree rise in temperatures will cause an 80 per cent bleaching of the world’s coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef. I recommend it to those honourable members.

I represent an urban seat, not one dependent on primary industries or tourism. But climate change is affecting urban Australia too, if not quite as immediately as it has regional Australia. Melbourne’s water supply is at the mercy of regular rainfall in regional Victoria. If our climate is going to move to a hotter and drier phase as a result of climate change, there is obviously going to be less water in our dams. This will affect not only gardens in every house in Melbourne but every aspect of our lives, as well as the ecosystems of the Yarra Valley and Port Phillip.

The Liberal and National parties in Victoria say the solution is to build more dams. But dams will not help if there is not enough rain to fill them. The real solution is to stop climate change before Melbourne’s water supply problems become a crisis. The only way to stop climate change is to radically reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Kyoto protocol. In the meantime, Melbourne needs to reduce its water consumption, and the Victorian Government led by Steve Bracks is doing an excellent job in this regard, with the program Our Water Our Future. Since 2003, John Thwaites, the Minister for Water, has issued nearly 130,000 rebates to people purchasing water-saving products such as dual-flush toilets, rainwater tanks and grey-water systems. Mr Speaker, we could do with some dual-flush toilets in this parliament. This and other measures of the Victorian government are already saving more than a billion litres of water a year. I commend John Thwaites, who represents the same part of Melbourne that I do, on his leadership in this area.

It is a pity we do not see any leadership on the climate change issue from this federal government. The Prime Minister likes to praise Tony Blair for his courage and leadership, and I certainly agree with him about that. Has the Prime Minister not noticed, however, that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have immediately embraced the Stern review and have committed themselves to the most radical program of emission reduction in the Western world?

I am pleased to see experimental models of geosequestration being set up in Warrnambool. But those are only experiments. Commercial development of these and other technologies will not be widely implemented, thus affecting greenhouse emissions, unless they are economically viable. That is why we need carbon trading. The Australian people will not be fooled by short-term PR announcements about the environment by this government; people know that climate change is happening.