Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the attendance by the minister, which I would characterise as arrogant and disingenuous. How are we here? How have we ended up in a position where the very people living on the front line of the climate crisis are being denied access to the truth? The public, farmers, families, First Nations communities and coastal towns are being kept in the dark about the risks that they are living through every single day. It may have escaped the government that we can no longer speak about the climate crisis in future tense. It is not a far-off threat and it is happening right now.

Drought is ravaging Victorian farmers, destroying harvests and livelihoods. Floods, cyclones and record-breaking rainfalls are hammering communities from Queensland to Western Australia. And, in the Torres Strait, communities are watching their homes and sacred sites being swallowed by rising seas and are facing the terrifying reality that their culture and existence are at risk. We are already seeing climate displacement. We are already witnessing mass coral bleaching and reef destruction. We are already watching species disappear, biodiversity collapse and ecosystems unravel. This is the lived reality of climate change in this country, yet, while it all unfolds, the government thinks it's acceptable to withhold a report that details the very risks that Australians are breathing and surviving every day.

The refusal to release the National climate risk assessment is an insult. It's an insult to the climate scientists who have poured their expertise into this report. It's an insult to the communities across the country who are already facing climate catastrophe. And it is an insult to the Australian people, who rightly expect this chamber to do its job as a house of review. Let's be very clear. This is not just a climate scandal; it is a crisis of democracy. And the Albanese government has a worse track record at responding to OPDs than the Morrison government. That is a shameful indictment.

This government's track record on transparency is abysmal. Public interest immunity claims are being used indiscriminately, without oversight or independence, to block the release of documents that the public has a right to see. Why this secrecy? Why this culture of cover-up? We have a pretty good indication of why. The fingerprints of the fossil fuel industry are absolutely everywhere. Their capture of our democracy is so pervasive that, if they were handed a pen and paper to draft out our climate environment laws themselves, they probably wouldn't even blink. Successive governments have bent over backwards for gas and coal lobbyists who bankroll campaigns and glide effortlessly through the revolving door between ministerial offices and boardrooms. That is the state of our democracy. Public interest is sold out to corporate interest, transparency is traded for secrecy and accountability is traded for profit.

Every hour, every day and every minute that this report remains hidden, public trust erodes further. But, Minister, it's not too late. Trust can be mended and confidence can be rebuilt, but you'd better get to work. Release the National climate risk assessment report, give the public the information that they need and deserve to understand the risks that we face, and, most importantly, share what the government plans to do about it.

This could be the last week before we see those 2035 targets. We deserve to know the risks we're facing beforehand. Let those plans and those targets be worthy of this moment—bold climate targets, no new coal and gas approvals, an end to the toxic ties between industry lobbyists and our democracy. I challenge you to please release that donation data imminently so we can understand that, when we see those targets—I hope they're strong and what the science demands—they're not influenced by dirty fossil fuel donations to your party. The choice is yours: continue to shield the fossil fuel industry and betray the public or put people and the planet first.