Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The climate crisis is a massive risk to Australia's and the world's security. The White House has released its national intelligence analysis of the threats, but, so far, your government has refused to do the same. Prime Minister, will you release a declassified version of the Office of National Intelligence's Climate Security Risk Assessment provided to the government last year?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for her question and for, I have no doubt, her genuine commitment to act on climate change. The government does not release Office of National Intelligence assessments that are provided to the National Security Committee. The government doesn't do that, and there are very good reasons why that has been the protocol over a long period of time, from both sides of the chamber, no matter who has been in government.

I've made my government's position very clear, including in my speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, which is the region's—and perhaps the world's—most serious gathering of national security and defence experts, including defence ministers and heads of departments from dozens of countries. We had, of course, General Campbell, the CDF, as well as Greg Moriarty, head of the Department of Defence. I spoke there very clearly about my government's position, which, consistent with the position that the Biden administration has taken, is that climate change is a national security issue. We haven't hidden that. We say it. We talk about it. We engage with the Pacific Island Forum about why that is the case.

We engage in all of our international forums, whether it be through the UNFCCC, that have been attended by the minister, or whether it be through the recent meeting of AUSMIN, where I, along with our foreign minister and defence minister, met with the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. When we met in Brisbane, one of the things that we spoke about was climate change as a national security issue. It's something that is a consistent theme, not surprisingly, from the world. Indeed, at the NATO summit that was held in Vilnius in Lithuania, the impact of climate change was a constant theme as well. It has an impact on food security. It's having an impact on migration. It's having an impact on so many areas of the globe, which is why we have to put it in that frame as well. But the government does not release—and we make no apologies for not releasing—national security advice, which, appropriately, goes to the National Security Committee. That is a position that we have had for a long period of time, and that will remain the position— (Time expired)