Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we saw a disgraceful shutting down of debate by the Morrison government when Labor, in this place, tried to move an urgency motion to discuss the IPCC's latest report. It came out last night. It should not be a surprise to anyone—it's appalling. Yet I bet that, in question time today, we will hear the Morrison government congratulating each other on how you are doing so well. You are not. One of the report's authors—Dr Meinshausen, an eminent scientific adviser—told the ABC:

I think everybody in the international community would laugh if they would hear that Australia thinks they're doing enough. Of course they're not doing enough.

He went on to say:

They neither have upped their targets for 2030 nor have they put a net zero target onto the table. They are not invited to many of the talks where international climate diplomacy is now going on because they are seen—and rightly so—as a laggard.

Yet this morning we saw the leader of the government in this place defend your appalling record: eight long years of absolute inaction on climate change. We've got business leaders, the ag sector and community leaders calling out for the Morrison government to lead on climate change, yet we have a Prime Minister who remains stubbornly ignorant of the fact that we need to act on climate change. The government have climate deniers in the Senate and in the House that are holding them back, and it's time that they looked Australians in the face and said, 'We haven't done enough.'