Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, dear! What a horrid bushfire season this country is experiencing already, and it's only 3 December. The figures are pretty well known now. Six people have died. More than 600 homes have been destroyed. Well over a million hectares of land in New South Wales have been burnt, a lot of very precious bush and farming land. In New South Wales alone, about as much land has burnt already this fire season as during the last three fire seasons in New South Wales. As we go about our work this afternoon, there are 100 fires or more still burning in New South Wales alone. Almost half of them are uncontained. Even the rainforests along the Great Dividing Range are now dry enough to burn for the first time in a very long time. No wonder New South Wales has declared a state of emergency.

Queensland has also declared a state of emergency. Severe fire danger warnings are in place for a number of districts, and the Bureau of Meteorology has predicted extreme heatwaves across the state of Queensland for the remainder of this week. In my home state of Tasmania the situation is also very alarming. I live in South Hobart, in the shadow of beautiful Mount Wellington. When you walk or bicycle up there, you can see that the fuel load is heavy and the bush is tinder-dry. Right across this country—Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria—we all face a very serious and worrying summer.

Of course, climate change is central to this. As the weather in this country is changing, in some parts of the country it's becoming markedly warmer and much drier. With this changing weather we are seeing hotter and drier summers, longer fire seasons and more intense fire episodes. When we look at what's happening to the bush and how it's burning, we're probably unsurprised to learn that nine of Australia's top 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005. Undoubtedly heatwaves are lasting longer and reaching higher maximum temperatures.

Despite all this, I regret to say we're not doing what we can to deal with climate change. We are not doing what we can to prepare for the likelihood of more and more intense bushfires. In fact, we're one of the only developed countries in the world relying on carryover credits and, frankly, accounting tricks to meet our Paris Agreement targets. You don't rely on carryover credits and accounting tricks. In reality, based on the government's own figures, real carbon emissions are going up in Australia. We won't meet the Paris Agreement. As modest as the Paris target is—a target of 26 to 28 per cent—even if we achieve that, even if we achieve what the previous speaker spoke about, that's still not enough. It's just not enough across the globe, particularly here within Australia.

I am one of an increasing number of people in this country arguing for this country to be put on a speedy pathway to zero net carbon emissions, which will ultimately only be achieved by 100 per cent reliance on renewable energy. I'm one of an increasingly large group of people in this country who think that meeting Paris is nothing to crow about. It will be too little, too late. Can we achieve 100 per cent renewable? Of course we can. We are rich in renewable energy—not just solar and wind but also hot rocks for geothermal energy. We're rich in potential wave power, potential tidal power. And who knows what other amazing technologies our scientists can develop given the opportunity?

It's not like no-one else in this country is speaking up. It's increasingly remarkable that some politicians are holding out here, like it's the last fortress, saying, 'We'll be okay,' and, 'We're doing enough.' The Defence Force chief, the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority—they've all raised serious concerns recently about the impacts of climate change in Australia. Just this afternoon I met with representatives of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, which is a group of 23 former fire and emergency services leaders in this country. They're saying we have to do something about climate change and we have to be much better prepared for the threat of bushfires like those we're already experiencing. I was pleased that they gave in-principle support to a suggestion I raised in the House of Representatives in question time today, which was that the government direct the Department of Defence to work up options for a heavy firefighting aircraft capability.

When I look at the fact that the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere fire seasons now overlap and the fact that our domestic resources are increasingly stretched because we're increasingly seeing fire simultaneously, from west to east and from north to south, in this country, it would seem to make sense to me that the defence forces—the RAAF, in particular—work up a capability to help with firefighting. That wouldn't just be engineers clearing firebreaks and wouldn't just be aircraft ferrying supplies around the country. We've got an abundance of C-17 Globemaster, C-130 Hercules and C-27 Spartan aircraft. I believe that as long ago as the 1980s the Air Force did trials and research into roll on, roll off tanker systems that could be literally rolled onto the back of, say, a C-130 Hercules. Yes, some small aircraft modification would be required and, yes, extensive crew training—in particular, pilot training—would be required, but it would be a capability that could be worked up, probably in a matter of several years, if the government were to direct Defence to develop such a capability.

It was unfortunate that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management, in response to that question from me today, politely dismissed it. They said that they're acting on the advice of experts and that experts say we have enough firefighting resources in this country to get through the summer and to get through the expected needs in the foreseeable future. I'm the first to say, 'Let's listen to the experts,' but I struggle to understand how we can have enough resources when we're seeing the fire danger trending so steeply in a worrying direction. When you've got 23 former leaders in fire and emergency services from all the states and territories saying, 'We need more heavy firefighting aircraft capability,' you've really got to pay attention. It is worth noting here that the amount of money the federal government is investing in aerial firefighting currently is not much different to what was budgeted for way back during former Prime Minister John Howard's time.

I've already spoken a little bit about Tasmania. I'm particularly alarmed that we're a long way away, with a limited number of aircraft. They've had to return to Melbourne to be refuelled on some occasions. We need enough heavy firefighting aircraft—and other resources too—to fight serious bushfires simultaneously right around the country. Increasingly, we're going to find that it's just not an option to have a very small number of heavy aircraft deployed. We're going to find they're somewhere and just not able to get somewhere else.

It is of course a matter of a lot more than just heavy aircraft. If we are really to prepare for the bushfire threat, which is going to get so much worse in the future, we need to have better planning codes and building codes. We need to have a better approach to fuel reduction. It's not good enough to turn it into a political slanging match and blame the Greens and whatnot. It is not that simple. It is about the shortage of resources in the parks services. It is about the difficulty of hazard-reduction burning in some parts of the country, where it is either too wet or too dry. These are tough things to do. Undoubtedly, though, if this country worked harder at a holistic response to the bushfire threat then we not only can do even better than we do currently but we would be even better prepared for the future.

I will leave it there. Our thoughts are, of course, with the people who are affected by the fires and the brave people who are fighting the fires. I do have a strong sense that, in this place, we could do more to support them not just this summer but into the future.