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

Two weeks ago, Australia's east coast was scorched by extreme heat, with temperatures in Kooyong soaring to 43 degrees and temperature records being broken across three states. This was the worst heatwave since Black Saturday 2009, when almost 400 Victorians died from heat and 173 died from bushfires. Experts warn that 50-degree summers have arrived, and these heatwaves are deadly.

Extreme heat strains every system of the body, worsening heart disease, diabetes and respiratory illnesses. But, despite killing more Australians than floods, storms and bushfires combined, heatwaves remain a silent killer. That's why I'm urging the government to confront this danger head-on by naming heatwaves in the same way that we name cyclones. Doing so would increase public awareness of the immediate risk associated with extreme heat. It would also help trigger timely health responses in households, by local governments and by healthcare services.

In a rapidly warming world, we can best protect people by slashing the carbon pollution that drives climate change. But, in the meanwhile, by recognising heatwaves as the lethal events that they are, and by acting decisively to prepare for them, we can protect vulnerable people and we can save lives.