Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that climate change is a health emergency as it will impact the core determinants of health, such as food, housing, employment, and water security;

(2) notes further impacts of climate change on human health including, increasing:

(a) transmission of infectious diseases;

(b) mental health disorders; and

(c) mortality and morbidity due to heat stress;

(3) commends the Government's commitment to developing a 'national climate change, health, and wellbeing strategy'; and

(4) calls on the Government to outline, the:

(a) timeline for the development of the strategy;

(b) scope, contents and objectives of the strategy;

(c) funding arrangements for the strategy; and

(d) consultation process for the strategy.

During the summer of 2019-20, when the Black Summer bushfires were raging, smoke shrouded Sydney like an oppressive blanket. At my GP practice in Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches, I saw numerous patients with breathing difficulty. Similar cases presented in hospitals and clinics across the country. More than 4,000 people were admitted to hospital with respiratory and cardiac conditions, and 445 died that summer. Respiratory and cardiac disorders associated with heavy smoke pollution are just a couple of the health impacts of climate change.

Extreme heatwaves have killed more Australians than any other climate related weather event. And fossil fuel air pollution continues to cause more than 5,000 Australian deaths a year. Global warming is also supercharging the spread of lethal transmissible diseases such as dengue, Ross River fever and malaria. More than half of infectious diseases are being made worse by climate change. Less visible are the psychological scars that continue long after the fires and floods pass.

I recently visited Lismore and heard the firsthand account of a young woman who narrowly escaped death, when, in the middle of the night, cold, dark, swirling floodwaters rose within inches of her ceiling. She told me of her hours-long struggle to keep herself, her mother and two dogs alive; of the warmth that started to spread through her body as hypothermia set in; of the people who held up their children, screaming for them to be rescued, as an overloaded tinny took them to higher ground; and of her inability to work or simply take a bath since. The physical and mental scars from repeated flooding and other extreme weather events will last for years to come.

In addition to these disease and trauma related impacts, climate change also strikes at the heart of the social determinants of health. According to the World Health Organization, the social determinants of health account for between 30 and 55 per cent of health outcomes. These are non-medical factors, such as housing, food, water security and employment. Climate change is putting them at risk. What happens to your health when your home is washed away by a flood or is otherwise destroyed? Thousands remain homeless after the past few years of fires and floods. Many are still living in tents without electricity. A roof over someone's head is the key to safety, security and prosperity, and it is the key to good physical and mental health.

A strong economy and secure employment are, similarly, key drivers of good health. In recent years, hundreds of businesses have been destroyed or had to close due to fires and floods in this country. Consider the builders whose contractors cannot work on a hot roof of a suburban home renovation due to the oppressive heat. As a result, the builder cannot meet his delivery timetable and contractors cannot make their rent. Food and water security are obviously paramount to human health. In 2018, 100 per cent of New South Wales was in drought and farmers were hitting the wall, exhausted from battling day after day with a parched landscape and dying livestock. Increasing floods and droughts both in Australia and around the world will lead to increased food and water insecurity and, hence, greater geopolitical instability and growing numbers of climate refugees.

For over a decade, the health impacts of climate change were ignored, until, in 2019, the Labor government committed to developing a climate change health and wellbeing strategy. This strategy is the result of the hard work of the Climate and Health Alliance and many others. Some of the things that the sector has identified as important to include in this strategy are a decarbonisation road map for the health system; a public education campaign on the impacts of climate change on health; workshops with experts and practitioners at all levels of government to provide feedback; and, every three years, assessing our health system's vulnerability to climate change. Already, our health system is stretched to breaking point and bursting at the seams. We must take account of, and plan for, the additional burden of disease that climate change will place on the physical and mental health of Australians. It is up to us to ensure that the strategy does not sit on a dusty bookshelf.

In summary, as the WHO and the Lancet have unambiguously put it— (Time expired)

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do I have a seconder for the member's motion?

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion moved by the member for Mackellar today and I commend her for this important motion. The World Health Organization has called climate change the biggest threat to global health this century. We are already seeing this across the globe, with record-breaking heat waves, fires and droughts in Europe, China and North America. Deadly floods in Pakistan have killed more than 1,400 people and displaced up to 50 million. Famine in the Horn of Africa has put 22 million people at risk of starvation. Rising sea levels are putting the very existence of our Pacific neighbours at risk.

In Australia, in just the past five years, we've had a record-breaking drought so severe that, in 2019, the Murray-Darling Basin experienced its lowest water level on record. This was followed by record-breaking floods, including in Lismore. In between the two, of course, we had the Black Summer bushfires. I have spoken many times in this place about the impact that those fires had on our region and on my constituents here in Canberra. I have spoken of the choking smoke that blanketed Canberra for weeks, dimming our daylight and making our air the most poisonous in the world. The air quality meant that people were directed to stay in their homes or to relocate if they had underlying health conditions and to use their air conditioning—something which many people didn't have or weren't able to do. The full health impacts will still be unknown to many.

Unfortunately, these disasters are here to stay, with fires, floods and drought projected to get worse and more frequent in a changing climate. We know climate change affects the clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter that we rely on for our health. The World Health Organization has warned that, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths every year from malnutrition, disease and heat stress. The World Health Organization estimates the direct damage costs to health to be between US$2 billion and US$4 billion a year by 2030. It is a terrifying scenario given the strain our health system is going through coping with the pandemic already. Developing countries with weak health infrastructure will suffer the most. But we know that with climate action we can stop this trajectory.

After a decade of policy analysis on climate, Australians voted for climate action in the May election. Australians voted for an Albanese Labor government that understands the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change and will embrace them both. I am pleased that Labor is delivering on our promise to take action. Our climate bill to enshrine into law an emissions reduction target of 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050 has already passed through the House of Representatives. As we've said, this ambitious target is a floor, not a ceiling, and if we can do better, we absolutely will.

We are working on getting more electric vehicles on our roads, which will immediately improve our air quality and health in our cities and towns. Our support of renewable energy will help firm the grid to help us better cope with climate variables such as heat waves. For too long, the community has been forced to take the lead on these issues. I want to acknowledge the work of the Women in Climate and Health Network that operates in Canberra, which hosts regular breakfast events, many of which I've attended, about ways in which the community can address these issues, taking matters into their own hands. We're really fortunate to have such a brilliant network of women showing leadership and raising these concerns in our community.

I'm proud to be part of a government that will now begin to provide the national leadership we need on these issues. The health minister, Mark Butler, has been an advocate of a national climate health strategy. Pleasingly, he's said that he will make climate change a national health priority. That is something he's already started working on with state and territory health ministers. We must work with the states and territories because they hold responsibility for much of our health system delivery, including hospital and ambulance services. Many states and territories have demonstrated their commitment to action by releasing climate change adaptation plan strategies, frameworks and reviews, with health as a core enabling objective. As part of this, the health minister wants to reduce the direct emissions footprint of the health sector and prepare the sector for the impact of climate change, especially heat related challenges and the synergies between good public health policy and good climate policy. This includes active transport and diet. This is a crisis that our world must begin to address together. I am so pleased that, after 10 years of inaction, the Albanese Labor government is giving it the priority it deserves.

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

I rise to speak on the health impacts of climate change and thank the member for Mackellar for this motion. For too long we've talked about climate change impacts, but we haven't addressed the very real way that it will impact everyone in our society, our way of life and our communities. Climate change is a health emergency. It will impact our core health determinants: food supply, housing, employment and water security.

The World Health Organization has described climate change as the defining issue for public health in the 21st century. The WHO warns that the severity of the impact of climate change on health is increasingly clear and threatens to undermine the last 50 years of improvements in health. I mean, think about that. It is just so stark. The IPCC's special report on global warming, 2018, states that, if we fail to keep global warming under 2 degrees, water and food security will be at risk, and some areas of Australia will likely be uninhabitable. From a global perspective, the WHO says that climate change threatens the essential ingredients of good health, clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter, and could undermine decades of progress.

Many of the major health bodies in Australia, including the Australian Medical Association, support policy and practical actions to limit the health effects of climate change. Doctors for the Environment Australia advocate for a health framework in mitigation of climate change risks on health similar to that of the UK. It's quite incredible that, in Australia, we still don't have a national risk assessment in relation to how exposed our communities are to climate change, and we don't have an adaptation or resilience-building plan. There are also direct mental health impacts from extreme weather events and disasters, including post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety, grief and suicidal ideation. Such is the prevalence of climate anxiety that the term 'eco-anxiety' has been coined. A recent survey of 10,000 children and young people aged between 16 and 25 years, in 10 countries, including Australia, found that 59 per cent were very or extremely worried about climate change, with 84 per cent saying they were moderately worried. If in this place we are not here to take care of our children's future, then what are we here for? We must address this issue.

In a submission to the inquiry into the climate change bill that I presented in 2020, the Climate and Health Alliance and Australian Council of Social Service identified that those most at risk of experiencing health impacts from climate change are, sadly, those already experiencing poverty, homelessness, mental illness and pre-existing chronic disease. The government's strategy must include a plan for those who are most vulnerable and include consultation with persons with disabilities and their representative groups.

We know, from 2019 and 2020, the devastating impact on communities of bushfires, and, from just this year, the devastating impact of floods. That bushfire season in Australia was a huge reminder of the health threats of climate change, because we saw the respiratory impacts and the danger to physical life. This year, with the devastating floods across the east coast, we saw loss of life, heavy rainfall and floods contaminate water supplies, jeopardise water security, increase mosquito-borne diseases and increase psychological stress in communities. Floods frequently damage power transmission and generation, leaving people without access to refrigeration or the internet, for information. We saw that firsthand all across the east coast. Even in Warringah we had a flooding event. The prolonged rain and floods along the east coast of Australia are causing an increase of mould in our homes. With that come serious health impacts. Asthma Australia research shows that young children exposed to mould and other allergens appear more likely to develop long-term asthma.

So climate change is a health emergency. The increase of weather events in Australia is clearly linked to the destruction of environmental conditions that provide the basis for our physical and mental wellbeing, impacting the air we breathe, the water we drink, the nutritious food we eat, our homes and our jobs. I welcome the government's commitment to developing a national climate change health and wellbeing strategy, and I urge the government to outline a time line, funding arrangements and consultation processes. It is a public health priority, but we need to do more. You can't say you're acting and still support fossil fuel projects. It's time to change.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Mackellar for raising this important motion. We are colleagues, after all, and doctors. I fully understand the health impacts of climate change, but I would urge that we widen the lens, that we don't just restrict ourselves to human health. There is this concept of one health, where we encompass human, environmental and animal health, and we are all in this together. I think it's important to reframe the concept of health into a much broader concept. When it comes to climate action, we as a government have well and truly moved beyond the 'whether' and the 'if', to now concentrate on the 'how'. We understand the economic, environmental and health imperatives of climate change. We are, after all, living through the era of consequences. The focus really now is: how do we decarbonise and how do we do this as fast as possible? What are the bottlenecks, and how do we overcome them? It's a far more nuanced approach.

I have heard, many a time, the problem of climate change—a wicked problem indeed—couched in purely scientific terms. I would say: if only it were that simple. If this were a purely scientific problem, it would've been solved decades ago—solved in the way we found a cure for polio, in the way we eradicated smallpox, in the way we put a man on the moon in the era of blackboards and chalk. This is not a purely scientific problem. This is a social problem, a scientific problem and a political problem, which is why it has not been solved.

The government and the crossbench are in furious agreement regarding the need for climate action, but where we differ is in balancing the competing priorities. And what are they? The climate emergency, no question; energy security, absolutely; and the uncomfortable truth that Australia has been over-reliant on fossil fuels for revenue and for economic security for too long.

With respect to energy security, this is a red line for government. Australians, their businesses and industry must have access to reliable, round-the-clock energy. To not do so is simply irresponsible and, frankly, unsafe. Then, of course, there is the challenge of diversifying our economy. Australia is a fossil fuel giant and has been for decades. We are the highest exporter of coal in the world and the highest producer of gas in the OECD. Coal and gas are our No. 2 and No. 3 exports, earning, in 2021, $110 billion and $70 billion respectively. These resources have made us rich as a country, and we have our regional communities in places like the Hunter and Collinsville to thank. This revenue has helped pay for hospitals, roads, infrastructure, schools and research, and it has also supported our local communities. But it has come at a cost, and that cost is pollution, which is now fuelling the climate emergency.

So, while I too want us to move as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels, we must have replacement revenue from other sources or we risk compromising those services that Australians rightfully expect. We in this government and this generation will be the ones that tip that balance. And it's already happening. With the passage of our climate bill through the lower house, we are poised to become a renewable energy superpower. This is not empty rhetoric. There are already several large-scale projects that are either coming online or are in the advanced stages of planning. Within a week of the passage of that bill, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy announced that six offshore wind farms were coming online. BlackRock, the world's largest investment manager, have committed $1 billion to large-scale grid batteries, the largest investment that they have internationally. We also have Sun Cable, a company that has an audacious plan to export sunshine from the Northern Territory to Singapore and Indonesia using a cable stretching 4,400 kilometres long.

What I would say to our young people, in particular, is that an industry of despair has sprung up around climate change. The problem with this is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When hope walks out the door, so does motivation. I would say to our people: reject this, because this has no place in our world view. There is a long history of humanity overcoming the odds, whether that be rebuilding after World War II, eradicating polio or closing the hole in the ozone layer. Several people said that couldn't happen, but we did it. We must rely on Australians' ingenuity and imagination to get us through this, and we will.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mackellar for bringing this very important motion to the parliament today. More than 20 years ago, I spent six months as a paediatric registrar in Darwin. During that time, years ago, I spent some months in Maningrida, about 500 kilometres east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, running medical clinics. The main illnesses that affected the Kunibidji children in the community in which I was working were failure to thrive; infectious gastroenteritis; and ear, respiratory and skin infections. All of those conditions are common childhood illnesses throughout Australia, but they affected First Nations children far more often and far more severely than their urban counterparts. Twenty years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Third assessment report found that indigenous peoples are most at threat to suffer the impacts of climate change, along with people from small island populations.

In the years since my time working as a doctor in the Top End, the Northern Territory has gotten hotter. The wet seasons are wetter, the dry seasons more dry. The number of days with dangerous weather conditions for bushfires has increased, and the frequency of extreme weather events has increased. More than 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in remote areas of Australia, mostly in communities in the north of the country. The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation states that the impacts of climate change amplify the health and wellbeing issues faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

But, no matter where we live, our environment and our communities are all vulnerable to the changing climate. Five years ago, the Lancet's Australian Countdown study confirmed that all Australian cities are highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and the impacts of extreme weather events. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners followed up this study and found that Australia's current carbon emissions trajectory is projected to triple—yes, triple—heatwave related deaths in the cities of Brisbane and Melbourne in our lifetimes. If we don't urgently change course, within 50 years the city of Sydney's heat related deaths will increase fivefold. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has also identified climate change as a key public health issue. In addition to the suite of chronic respiratory, cardiac, cerebrovascular and multisystemic illnesses caused by changes to our climate, people subjected to extreme heat, catastrophic weather events and prolonged drought can experience significant long-term mental health impacts and psychiatric illnesses. So climate change is a health crisis.

Today, nurses, midwives, psychologists, the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians have issued a set of urgent recommendations to the Albanese government for a national strategy on climate, health and wellbeing, including a sustainable healthcare unit within the Department of Health and Aged Care. I wholeheartedly endorse this recommendation.

There is no scientific scenario, no economic scenario and no responsible medical scenario in which Australia can open any new coal projects. Right now there are more than 100 new coal and gas projects coming down the investment pipeline, each at a different stage of development. If these projects come to fruition, they will more than double Australia's carbon emissions, and these coal and gas projects will disproportionately harm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The previous government handed out $55 million of grants to oil and gas companies seeking to extract fossil fuels from the Beetaloo basin. One of those companies was Tamboran Resources, which was awarded $7.5 million in taxpayer money to explore the area, despite having called on the Australian government to abandon its goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

I became a paediatrician to help sick children in my care get better. I came to Australia because I think it's my duty to do everything in my power to prevent the harm that global warming can cause. The people of Kooyong have sent me to parliament to say to the Labor government on their behalf that Australia must urgently transition to clean energy industries and to a net-zero-emission economy. We cannot in good conscience do anything else. To do anything else would be a betrayal of our children.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made the order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:33