Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

After burying it for nine months, Greens pressure and this Senate has ordered Labor to release the National climate risk assessment report. Brave whistleblowers who have seen the climate risk report say that it details a future where we face a world on track for three degrees of warming, which means 50-degree days in Sydney and Melbourne. It means homes within five kilometres of the coast, which applies to many of us, facing regular flooding and inundation. It means much of the country stuck in drought, leading to crop shortages and price spikes for essentials, and all coral reefs dead.

The government has claimed cabinet confidentiality as the reason for hiding this report, but a document that informs cabinet is not a document that reveals cabinet deliberations. So there is no legitimate reason to keep hiding this climate risk report. It's a cover-up from a government that is increasingly revealing itself as anti-transparent. Labor must announce Australia's 2035 climate target this month, but they are hiding the true impacts of climate change from the public. The government have said that they will release this at the same time as their 2035 climate targets—later this month—but not before.

People need to know the true impacts of what awaits them before the government announces the new climate targets. Those targets must be science based, and the science says that what is needed is net zero by 2035 to keep us safe from turbocharged natural disasters and to ensure a prosperous economy. A low target favours coal and gas business profits—those same folk who donate to the government's re-election coffers—but modelling from Deloitte released last week shows that a higher target is actually better for the economy and benefits every other business and household in the country. Deloitte's modelling shows that Australia's GDP would be $370 billion better off by 2035 with a 75 per cent emissions reduction target than with a 65 per cent target. It's good for business, it's good for the community and it's good for nature, which sustains our life. It's clear that this Labor government wants to roll out the red carpet for the fossil fuel industry, whether it's for Woodside, with a mega gas project approval just after the election, or by not holding Santos to account for leaking methane for 19 years.

The refusal to accept the risks of climate change means that we can have an environment minister who says he doesn't think it's a good idea to consider the climate when issuing approvals under the environment laws. Clearly, he urgently needs to read the climate risk report, and definitely before he approves the thermal coalmine extension proposal in Mudgee currently on his decision-making table. That extension would result in massive land clearing, putting threatened species, like koalas and swift parrots, further at risk. It would extract an extra 18.8 million tonnes of thermal coal and extend the mine's life to 2035. Approving that coalmine—yet another one—would be yet another betrayal from a Labor government that claims to be serious about climate action but just keeps approving coal and gas projects. If this government were serious about action on climate and the environment, it would stop approving coal and gas projects and end the subsidies—the free public money—that Australia gives to those dirty industries. People are already feeling the impacts of the climate crisis. Natural disasters that are turbocharged by coal and gas are wreaking havoc on community safety and on biodiversity and nature. If our nation is about to be signed onto a plan for 2½ or three degrees of warming, Australians deserve an honest conversation about what that means for them.

Climate change is here, and we can either build the Australian economy through clean energy, advanced local manufacturing and secure, well-paid jobs or stick our heads in the sand and continue to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. The science says we need to get to net zero by 2035, and the only reason for the government hiding this climate risk report is that they don't want people to have the information they need to work out that this government's 2035 target is going to be inadequate and will not keep them safe. The 2035 target needs to be based on science and not fossil fuel lobbying, or we will be consigned to live out the terrifying future that is documented in this hidden report that's described as 'dire' and 'extremely confronting'.