House debates

Thursday, 13 February 2020

Adjournment

Climate Change

12:28 pm

Photo of Stephen JonesStephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

Our climate is changing around us. The evidence is now there for us to see. This year we had the 'black summer'—the toxic air, a billion animals perished. It was the worst drought in our history and there were changes in our oceans with bleaching coral reefs. I cannot accept that anybody wants to see this. I do believe that, after this 'black summer', there will be a unity of purpose and a yearning for leadership. We're often asked to quantify the cost of action on climate change, but we're rarely asked to quantify the cost of inaction.

According to the University of Melbourne, the potential damages to Australia from climate change, based on current global emission patterns, will be well in excess of $580 billion by 2030 and well in excess of $760 billion by 2050. That's more than $5 trillion in cumulative changes from now until the end of the century. The Insurance Council of Australia, which makes its business from managing risk—that is what it does—says that climate change is occurring along a rapid and severe pathway and that, without intervention, it presents a serious risk to environments, economies and communities. This is no longer going to be something in the future tense; it will be reflected in the premiums that we pay for our insurance this year and next year. The cost of not acting is profoundly higher than the cost of just taking the action we need.

So much is at stake in my local community. We live on a coastal plain. We face destructive erosion and the inundation of the waterfront. Similarly, the highland, farmland and rainforest on the escarpment are at risk from changing climate patterns. In the Illawarra, in the Southern Highlands and on the South Coast, we are in a unique position to not only make a significant national contribution to responding to climate change but also grow our local jobs and our economy. Our region has enormous opportunities, such as a highly skilled workforce geared towards industry and services. We've got industrial land ready for use. We're connected to a world-class port in Port Kembla, strategically important for transport infrastructure, including rail and motorways. We've got the Port Kembla steelworks and hundreds of associated downstream fabricators. We've got one of the 100 universities in the world with excellent foundations in research, supported by a strong vocational education sector. Our region is also rich with renewable energy sources—solar and coastal winds, as well as wave energy.

It's not hard to see a future where jobs growth in the Illawarra, in the Southern Highlands and on the South Coast comes from taking action on climate change. There would be new jobs in solar and wind, from the beginning to the end—manufacturing components, design, construction and the management and maintenance of them. There would be logistical support for domestic and international trade industries. There is opportunity for us to work in battery manufacture, with a high-skilled workforce and available land. We have the buildings and the infrastructure needed to move product around the country and around the world. We've got what it takes. We've got a steelworks and the downstream businesses to manufacture the right steel for the right job.

We also mine coal in the Illawarra, and coal has been a lightning rod in this debate. Somehow it's become a proxy for the ambition of taking action on climate change. I want to say this: coalminers care about the future of their families, our environment and our region like the rest of us. We cannot make them the battering ram in a toxic argument. Just as we need coking coal to transform iron into steel, we can and do need to work with our coalmining communities to transform our economies and our regional economies to ensure that we have a future for everyone.

The scope of our region to leverage off our existing investments and existing infrastructure in manufacturing, heavy industry, education, training and services, and logistical and transport infrastructure puts the Illawarra, the Southern Highlands and the South Coast in an exciting position to develop new jobs in responding to climate change. I believe our next chapter will be our region becoming a greenhouse powerhouse, with jobs and opportunity for all. To achieve this, we need to bring the whole community along with us and not get bogged down in this present toxic debate.