Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We need to talk about climate adaptation and risk mitigation. Yesterday the CSIRO released its megatrends report for the decade ahead, titled Our future world. It should come as no surprise that the megatrend for the decade ahead is unprecedented weather events. Right now, we're seeing the costs of poor climate planning play out. Climate disasters are incredibly expensive. In the last April budget, this year's floods in northern New South Wales and Queensland had already cost over $6 billion to the budget bottom line. It feels crude, really, to put these disasters in financial terms. But, since action is often delayed on the basis of cost, it is necessary to talk of the costs and consequences: the $2.8 billion Black Summer bushfires and the $1.5 billion Queensland floods. While this highlights the urgency of investing in climate adaptation, talking in dollars simply doesn't do justice to the human cost. It's heartbreaking to see residents along the Hawkesbury in Sydney's west hit for a second time by floods right when their homes had just been repaired. These are people in communities in limbo. They wake up every day with reminders of disasters. The Northern Rivers area has been devastated and is still in recovery, with thousands living in temporary accommodation, uncertain of whether they will ever be able to return home.

It is so insulting, then, when people like the former National Recovery and Resilience Agency head Shane Stone turn around and say:

You've got people who want to live among the gum trees—what do you think is going to happen? Their house falls in the river, and they say it's the government's fault …

But let's get real. All levels of government must accept responsibility for decades of negligent planning and be part of the solution. It is governments who have opened up lands on floodplains for residential development and allowed buildings to be constructed on sensitive sand dunes.

Australian families need affordable housing, and they are the ones who suffer from poor planning. We need proper planning, preparation and mitigation. According to a report by Deloitte Access Economics, only three per cent of public money allocated to disaster relief is invested in preparation and mitigation. The Emergency Response Fund, established in 2019, has committed just $150 million to disaster mitigation while earning more than $800 million in interest. In Warringah, all three council areas have been declared disaster zones at least once this year already. Insurance premiums have skyrocketed and infrastructure has been impacted. The Manly post office remains closed months after the March flooding event due to damage incurred.

With extreme weather on the rise, our beautiful coastal communities are at risk. Manly is among the top 10 communities most exposed to coastal climate impact according to CoreLogic. In a submission to the inquiry into the climate change bills that I tabled in the last parliament, Local Government NSW estimated that there are $212 billion of public assets at risk from climate change induced events. We need to assess risks and begin to plan for our future world. We need to assess risks in order to properly prioritise our next steps as a nation. Proper risk assessments will encourage investments in adapting healthcare systems, critical infrastructure and all the elements that need to be done.

But right now systems simply can't cope with the compounding impacts of climate disasters: heatwaves, floods, droughts, water shortages, impacts to water quality, bushfires and bushfire smoke, and sea level rise. This type of risk assessment and response needs to happen across the country. We can't ignore the risks to communities where climate disasters are rendering households and businesses uninsurable. Leaders anticipate; losers react. For too long, our governments have denied and underplayed the extent of the risk to our way of life from global warming. We must prepare our communities and keep them safe.

I welcome the climate targets bill tabled this week by the government, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. A comprehensive climate bill should also have national risk assessments and adaptation planning, because, as the State of the environment report told us, there's already significant climate impact baked into our already warm world. We have to balance our actions from risk mitigation to adaptation to resilience building. That's why I urgently call on the government to make sure that the Climate Change Authority prepare a national risk assessment identifying communities, sectors and environments most at risk.