Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The re-insurers are exactly the same concept. Liberal senators came into the Senate today and talked about the impact on India if we do not burn coal and develop the Adani mine. 60 Minutes talked about the reef and, during the week, Four Corners ran a movie, a short film, that is being shown around the world that was put together by ex-US military generals and admirals. They are acting on climate change. It is a really good documentary. It is going to film festivals all around the world. I suggest to anyone listening that they watch it. It talks about how climate change is acting as the accelerator for global instability and that it is the biggest threat to global security. They talked about the Arab Spring and they gave examples of how the sea level rise predicted could, in Bangladesh alone, displace 20 per cent of their population as climate change refugees. That is 30 million people from Bangladesh going into places like India—where, by the way, they have built the world's first climate wall to keep out refugees. So do not come in here and give us all this nonsense about burning coal being good for people in poor countries. Climate change is the biggest threat to these countries—with extreme weather events and wars over precious resources—and we owe it to these countries to act. This concept that somehow it is about jobs: well, I have been and dived off the Great Barrier Reef, and I have been to dive off lots of reefs around the world, and I know that, based on what Professor Terry Hughes said on 60 Minutes last night, the latest surveys on the middle section of the reef show that damage to the reef from coral bleaching has gone from moderately damaged to severely damaged. There are 70,000 jobs in the tourism industry on the Great Barrier Reef. I understand why the tourism industry has not wanted to enter this political debate in the past for fear of talking down their industry and loss of visitations to the Great Barrier Reef. I say to them: 'I understand that, but you are going to have to get engaged and get involved if this proposition is going to be viable into the future.' The reef is still going to continue to be a global tourism attraction. We have to actually act to protect the reef and the marine life that lives in the reef.

These warming waters are damaging marine life and marine ecosystems all around the country. It is an irrefutable fact that if we do not cut down on our emissions then this is going to continue to get worse. And, as a large bald-headed man who was a singer for Midnight Oil once said, 'Sometimes you have to take the hardest line'. We will take the hardest line on any new coal fired power stations, the clean-coal myth and any new coalmines because someone has to stand up for future generations and our marine creatures to make sure we have a planet that is liveable for the next 50 years. (Time expired)