House debates

Monday, 26 March 2007

Adjournment

Climate Change

9:20 pm

Photo of Maria VamvakinouMaria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Tonight I want to talk about the effects of climate change and the very real sense of crisis that surrounds the growing problem of water shortages in Australia. Many local residents living in my electorate of Calwell have written to me expressing their concerns over the water shortages affecting our region and our country and the lack of federal government leadership and action when it comes to tackling climate change. I share their concerns.

Climate change has become one of the defining issues of our time and one of the greatest collective challenges we face as a nation. Failure to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will have dire consequences for generations to come. It will hurt our economy, our environment and our children’s future, and those constituents who have written to me clearly understand that. Experts predict that global warming will lead to a three-degree rise in average temperatures over the coming decades, with the Australian Greenhouse Office predicting a six-degree rise in temperatures by 2070. In Australia, temperatures have already risen by an average of 0.8 degrees, with five of the hottest years on record occurring in the last seven years alone.

A three-degree rise in temperature will mean more extreme weather patterns, increased flooding, a rise in sea levels along our densely populated coastline and more prolonged and more severe droughts. The CSIRO predicts that we will be left with a 40 per cent reduction in the livestock-carrying capacity of Australia’s native pasture systems, flows to the Murray-Darling Basin falling by between 16 and 48 per cent, and the possible extinction of the Great Barrier Reef.

Despite these warnings, Australia lags far behind other developed countries when it comes to tackling climate change. Whilst the EU has set a target of cutting greenhouse emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, Australia’s greenhouse emissions are expected to soar by 27 per cent by 2020. A decade of warnings about the dangers of climate change has been matched by a decade of denial and inaction by the Howard government. Tackling climate change requires national leadership and a government that understands the severity of the problem we face. With its climate change blueprint, federal Labor has put forward a series of responsible, long-term solutions aimed at tackling climate change. In government, Labor will ratify the Kyoto protocol, becoming an international partner in what remains the most significant global effort to date to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We have undertaken to cut Australia’s greenhouse pollution by 60 per cent by 2050. We will establish a national emissions trading scheme and significantly increase the mandatory renewable energy target with a view to encouraging, among other things, greater use of solar and wind power. At present, Australia is missing out on the economic benefits associated with carbon trading and the development of a renewable energy industry.

In addition, Labor recently announced its $500 million clean coal fund, to promote cleaner coal and to protect jobs in this sector, as well as its new $500 million green car innovation fund that will throw a lifeline to Australia’s struggling car industry and see federal investment in the development and manufacture of low-emission cars in Australia. This promises significant benefits for Calwell, which is heavily reliant on Australia’s car industry for local jobs.

The water crisis that now affects many parts of Australia has undeniably focused our attention on the very real effects of climate change. According to the CSIRO, water supplies in Melbourne and Sydney will drop by 25 per cent by 2030 as a result of reduced rainfall and higher evaporation rates due to climate change. In the meantime, their populations are expected to rise by 30 per cent. In my electorate of Calwell, residents now face stage 3(a) water restrictions. Like millions of other Australians who have undertaken to conserve water at home and in the workplace, they are carrying the lion’s share of the burden and doing most of the work when it comes to saving water.

We have a responsibility in this place to match those efforts by delivering clear policies that provide long-term solutions to Australia’s water crisis. We need to conserve the fresh water that we have, maintain healthy water flow in our rivers, wetlands and estuaries and fully utilise the huge volumes of waste water that can be recycled. I believe that water recycling, for both domestic and commercial use, has a critical role to play in conserving Australia’s fresh water supplies; yet, under the Howard government, we still lack a clear and comprehensive set of national guidelines for water recycling in Australia. Such guidelines would go a long way towards building public confidence in water recycling. In contrast, Labor has already committed itself to setting a national target of recycling 30 per cent of waste water by 2015.

In the area of climate change and water management, Australians need to make a choice. Do we as a nation continue along the current path of inaction and denial when it comes to tackling climate change or do we invest in our future by taking steps to protect our environment and natural resources?