Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, all I can say is: here we go again. The Greens, Labor, Liberal and Nationals seem to think that science occurs when someone says the words 'the science says'. That is a lie; that is a delusion—a dangerous lie and a dangerous delusion. Empirical scientific evidence, measured observations, decide science when presented within a causal framework that proves cause and effect. The Greens never present empirical scientific evidence showing cause and effect.

Let's assess each of the Greens' statements and implied claims and the empirical scientific evidence that exists. Their first claim is there is global heating. The global atmosphere has not warmed since 1995, especially when you include analysis of natural El Nino cycles. There has been no increase for 27 years. The longest temperature trend in the last 140 years has been the 40 years from 1936 to 1976—40 years of cooling. It was warmer by far in Australia in the 1880s and 1890s. It was far warmer than today. Today is now cooler than 97 per cent of the Holocene—that period of Earth's history of the last 10,000 years since the last glaciers. There's no heating—end of story.

Let's continue. They make the statement that the burning of coal, oil and gas is the primary cause. Human use of hydrocarbon fuels leads to the production of water vapour, H2O, and carbon dioxide. Water vapour has a net cooling effect on the planet. Human carbon dioxide is a plant food. It's essential for all life on this planet. It increases plant growth as it gets higher in the atmosphere and it has a net cooling effect because of the vegetation.

The next question is: does human carbon dioxide affect the level of carbon dioxide in the air? That's fundamental. During the global financial crisis we had a natural experiment for the whole planet. We saw a seven per cent reduction in the level of carbon dioxide produced by human activity, industrial and transportation activity, yet the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continued to increase. So we cut our carbon dioxide and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased. In 2020 we had a second planetary experiment with the COVID restrictions. We had a bigger decrease in human carbon dioxide output yet the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continued to increase.

Human production of carbon dioxide does not and cannot affect the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—full stop. Nature alone controls the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, regardless of what we do. Each year nature alone produces 32 times the level of carbon dioxide that we produce. Entire human activity is just one thirty-second of what nature produces. Nature produces 97 per cent of Earth's carbon dioxide every year. The oceans contain, in dissolved form, 50 to 70 times the carbon dioxide in Earth's entire atmosphere. Slight cooling in the ocean temperatures leads to absorption of carbon dioxide, and slight warming leads to release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Nature alone controls the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Let's have a look at some other statistics. Let's look at floods in Brisbane and South-East Queensland. In the last 100 years there were two major floods. In the previous 90 years there were nine major floods in 1893 and 1841—far higher than any recent flood. In the summer of 1893 Brisbane endured three floods within three months. There has been no increase in tropical cyclones. There has been a slight decrease or flattening in frequency and severity. Today's fires are far less than in the past. Heatwaves are much shorter and much cooler than in the 1880s and 1890s. Don't believe me? Go and see the Bureau of Meteorology data. Next is reef bleaching. It's natural. Record cooling in the southern Great Barrier Reef in June 2008 saw the coral bleaching. It's caused by symbiosis in the corals.

Who pays for these lies? The people of Australia, especially the poor. The Greens' lies are dishonest, treasonous and a betrayal of Australia and Australians.