Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to lead off on the adjournment debate. I want to take the time allotted to me to talk about the visit by the Pacific Calling Partnership last week, a program of the Edmund Rice Centre, which is doing great work. This partnership had visitors from low-lying Pacific islands visit Parliament House to talk about the impact of climate change on their countries. I had the pleasure of meeting with Apisaloma Tawati, from Kiribati, who talked to me about the challenge they have of losing land through stormwater surges and rising sea levels; the impact of saltwater destroying their drinking wells and crops; the impact of losing land and the impact on society where, for example, his uncle and family have had to move into their house because his uncle's family have lost their land.

I also had the pleasure of meeting with Seimila Filioma, from Tuvalu. She told me that the land in Tuvalu is only two to three metres above sea level. They are already seeing significant saltwater contamination and erosion of land. They are facing dire consequences that actually challenge the continuing existence of these countries, Tuvalu and Kiribati.

Seimila told me that she has a daughter the same age as mine, around one year old. And, like every other parent in the world, she wants the best for her daughter. She is really worried that her daughter will grow up on an island that is not sustainable, where they will be forced to go to another country because they will not have land to live on, crops to grow—any sort of sustenance to survive on. These are two examples of the impact of climate change that is already occurring.

The impact of climate change can be put in many contexts. For example, a few years ago we saw Cyclone Nargi go through Myanmar. That led to a storm surge up the Delta, 40 kilometres inland, which killed over 100,000 people. Scientists have demonstrated that, if the sea level had been 20 centimetres lower, that storm surge would have been less than 20 kilometres up the Delta, resulting in significantly fewer lives lost. These are all the impacts of climate change that are now occurring. It is in this context that I rise to condemn the coalition's walking away from the previous consensus on an emissions reduction target of five to minus 25 per cent. Prior to the last election the coalition signed up to that range of target, saying that the exact figure of Australia's reduction would be within that range, depending on international action.

The independent Climate Change Authority, a group of experts which the coalition is seeking to abolish because it disagrees with the independent advice, has said that the target should be around 17 per cent, based on international action. Since the coalition came into government it has reduced its target to minus five per cent and, quite frankly, it has no chance of meeting that with its joke of direct action policy.

Apisaloma and Seimila are victims of climate change and we owe it to them and future generations of Australia to do something. What we do in this place matters. We are a lead in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular in the Pacific. We are the highest emitter, per person, of greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world. And that is a fact that we are reminded of every time we go into international forums.

I was deeply disappointed that, with the exception of the members for Hasluck and Reid, no other member of the coalition had the guts to meet with these people from the Pacific Islands who came to Parliament House last week. No-one had the guts to look these people in the eye, and say, 'I don't care what's happening to your islands, I don't care what's happening to your family, I don't care that in generations to come you won't have a home to live in. All I care about is petty, political self-interest and abandoning a decade of consensus on climate change.'

It is really disappointing that these people do not have the courage to talk to these people of the Pacific Islands and people in Australia, who are already suffering the impacts of climate change. It just shows the hypocrisy and the fundamental moral weakness of the coalition, that they are not prepared to take the hard decisions in the long-term national interest. It is not just about being cute for the environment. If we do not take action on climate change, we will see a 97 per cent reduction in agricultural land in the Murray-Darling Basin. We will see the end of the Great Barrier Reef, which brings in $9 billion in export revenue through tourism each year. These are the real impacts of climate change and I am deeply disappointed that no-one in the coalition, with the exception of the members for Hasluck and Reid, had the courage and the moral fortitude to look these people in the eye, and to say, 'I know what I'm doing is wrong, but I'm still going to do it.'