Senate debates

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Condolences

Australian Bushfires

2:40 pm

Photo of Rachel SiewertRachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to contribute to this motion of condolence for those who have lost their lives and been affected by the bushfires. My deepest sympathies go out to those who have lost loved ones. I express my extreme grief and distress at the loss of 33 lives. My condolences to the friends and communities and, most importantly, families of those who have lost loved ones. I express my deep distress, grief and sympathies to those who have lost homes and livelihoods, and for the billion animals that are estimated to have been lost, for the extinctions that we know will have occurred and for the habitats that have been lost, many of which will take literally decades to recover, if they ever do.

A national survey undertaken by The Australia Institute found that 57 per cent of Australians had experienced a direct impact from bushfires or from smoke. But I think probably nearly every Australian will know somebody who has been affected by the bushfires or by the smoke. They'll know people whose houses were threatened. They will know, or their families will know, some of those who have lost their lives. They will know of people who have been evacuated. A former senator from this place—from watching him on Instagram—has evacuated seven times on the South Coast of New South Wales. I know there will be many others who have done the same thing. So I think it's fair to say that every Australian has been affected by this bushfire crisis and its impacts.

This summer we have all watched in horror at the scale and the ferocity of Australia's unprecedented bushfire crisis, but we cannot say that it is unexpected, because it had been clearly articulated what would happen with a warming climate. As someone who has been campaigning on the issue of climate change and its impacts for literally over 30 years, I feel profound grief for the loss that has occurred—the human loss and the natural environment loss—and for the fact that action wasn't taken earlier, that there was a failure on behalf of governments to listen to the wealth of evidence that pointed to the impacts that climate change would have. As has already been articulated in this place, these impacts were foreseen. They were predicted. The work was done, and it was ignored. I feel a deep sense of grief over the fact that we couldn't convince those who held the power to make the decisions that were necessary.

I fear still for the debate when I hear some people say, 'Oh, well, maybe we got it wrong, but we can't do anything about it now; it's too late.' It's not too late. It's not too late to stop further warming of this planet. I, my colleagues and many other people, including those who are currently on the lawns of Parliament House, in front of this place, are saying, 'We expect better and we'll continue to campaign and take action.' Conversations are happening around this country about the lack of action and the need for urgent action. We pay great disrespect to those who have lost their lives and to the thousands and thousands of professional firefighters, volunteer firefighters and all those other volunteers who are supporting those who have been affected by these bushfires. We pay them great disrespect if we don't see this as the most massive call to action.

Australia will continue to face climatic conditions that we have never experienced before, including bushfires that are exacerbated by drought, high temperatures and longer summers. We've had to invent new colours for temperatures on our weather maps. Even through this summer, in my home state of Western Australia, it is getting hotter and hotter—as it is for the rest of the country, but particularly in WA. We still have the rest of summer and the beginning of autumn to go.

For decades we've been hearing from academics and experts on the ground about the impacts of climate change. Just this week, over 270 scientists who are experts in climate, fire and meteorology wrote an open letter to Australia's leaders, calling for them to abandon partisan politics and take urgent action on climate change. The scientists warned us that extreme events such as bushfires will only grow worse in the future without genuine action to reduce global emissions and greenhouse gases. They are calling for us to take action here so we do not see further warming of this planet. Scientists and academics have been warning us for decades that climate change will worsen Australia's fire risk, and the people on the ground know this.

Yet for decades governments of this country—and, to be fair, others around the planet—have flat-out ignored the evidence about climate change. They have been missing in action. They have been in denial. They have been affected by profit-focused major corporations, mining companies, to ignore the signs and not take action. This absolute tragedy of this summer's bushfire crisis must mark a change in the approach. We must ensure that we take real action to prevent such loss and devastation from occurring again.

There is enough evidence to see we have a serious problem that requires urgent changes to be made. While the Prime Minister focuses on adaptation and new gas deals with the states, we know that adaptation won't be a viable option in the future without stronger action. Climate change is here. It has been for a long time. First responders know this. People on the ground know this. Firefighters know this. They've been trying to tell this place that we need to take action.

If we mean the words that we have spoken in this place today and the many words that have been spoken about the bushfires outside this place, if we are to truly honour the sacrifices that have been made, we must act. We cannot throw up our hands and say, 'It is too late.' It is not. We've seen the consequences if we don't take action. Now's our chance to listen to the evidence, to listen to the science and to make sure that our policies are based on evidence.

Part of that means we need to also be looking at what works for recovery of the country, and part of that is that, very importantly, we also need to be listening to First Nations peoples, who have been managing this land for eons and who recently have been saying very strongly, as they have been saying for a long time, that there needs to be better land management and that they want to be able to do it. They want to be able to go back to their land management practices and manage the land. But they particularly feel a deep sense of sorrow because of the damage that has been done to the land, and we need to make sure that First Nations peoples have a fundamental role in the recovery process and the ongoing management into the future.

I want to touch very briefly on the supports that people are receiving. I am sure others have had similar contacts from people who are deeply concerned about the adequacy of disaster payments—both the recovery allowances and the recovery payment. We support ACOSS's call to increase those payments significantly. We Greens have been thinking about this issue for an extremely long time. We know that we need to develop meaningful climate policy that will address the issues that we are talking about today. We know that we need to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground once and for all. We know that gas is not our saviour, as some would have you believe. We need to rapidly transition to renewable sources of energy. We know that we need to take stronger action globally as well, but Australia needs to take action now.

We Greens have a staged plan to ensure that no workers or families are left behind in the necessary transition from coal, gas and oil. Communities need to be resourced to deliver plans, with a Commonwealth guarantee of adequate funding for reskilling, income security and encouraging new industries. We're not pretending this is easy, but, as a community, we can achieve the change that is necessary so we don't have to continue standing up in this place and having these motions of condolence—because, if we don't take action, that's where we're going to end up, and we'll all say the same words over again. We really need to honour those who lost their lives or their livelihoods or who have had significant impact on their community by working to achieve the change that is necessary.

I feel a deep sense of grief having to stand up here, knowing very well that people knew what could happen. We were told, and it happened anyway. Let's not repeat that history. Let's together make a new future that addresses these issues.

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