Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make some comments in relation to an issue that is very important for the people of South Australia. That is, of course, the issue of climate change and the devastating impact that our changing climate is having on our community, our environment, our agriculture and our water supply.

When you look around the world and take into consideration the huge impact that climate change is having on extreme weather right now, it is just enormous. We've seen flash flooding in places like Germany and Belgium in the last month, with over 220 deaths, 700 injuries and widespread damage to infrastructure. We've seen flooding in China, resulting in more rain in two days than in an entire year in some regions. We've seen flooding in India that has created a huge number of deaths and massive damage to infrastructure. We've seen landslides. Then, of course, you only need to go to the United States to see the huge climate fires that have devastated those communities in recent weeks and months. There are the heatwaves, the wildfires, the death and destruction and the fear of this extreme weather. Of course, we know the world's best scientists have delivered a damning warning to leaders, governments and nations right across the globe that, unless we do more to drastically cut carbon pollution in the next decade, we are only going to see more of these devastating weather events and extreme activities.

In South Australia, of course, we live at the bottom end of the Murray-Darling Basin, at the end of the River Murray, and if we don't get climate change in check, if we don't start to reduce carbon pollution, if drought takes hold, we simply won't have access to the clean water supply that we are used to. In fact, it won't just be devastating for South Australia; it is going to be devastating for everyone who lives throughout the Murray-Darling Basin and everybody else who relies on the Murray-Darling Basin as our nation's food bowl. It is going to have a huge impact on our agricultural industries. What have we got in relation to solutions from this government when faced with these facts, these warnings from the science? We have a Prime Minister who is steadfast in his refusal to step up Australia's commitments to reducing carbon pollution and to address the dangerous warning signs that scientists have given us in relation to stopping the expansion of fossil fuels and moving to clean, green renewable energy and energy production.

Australia isn't just under pressure from the weather itself and from the people here in the Australian community. On the global stage, we're now seeing other leaders stand up and call out Prime Minister Morrison's lazy response to climate change. We're seeing big pressure come from some of our closest allies, the United States and the United Kingdom. The US President's envoy on climate change has called out Australia for not having a sufficient target and for not doing enough to address carbon pollution, calling on Australia to do better and to come to the global conference at the end of the year in Glasgow with a decent commitment to reducing carbon pollution and to addressing climate change.

Mr Morrison himself was on the phone to Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, over the weekend. What did Mr Johnson say to the Prime Minister? He said, 'You better be prepared to come with a better plan to Glasgow at the end of the year,' wanting to make sure that Australia put on the table a decent commitment to reducing pollution and reaching net zero carbon, at least at some point. This Prime Minister has been absolutely stubborn, refusing to put in place a commitment to net zero. Some of our best and closest trading partners, Japan, South Korea and even China, have put in targets for net zero well before Australia has even bothered to put anything on the table. Australia's going to go to this conference and it's going to be under huge pressure. If we don't step up our commitment, if we don't step up our ambition and if we don't put in place a proper plan to reduce pollution, we won't just be the laughing stock of the world; we'll be condemning our own communities and our own industries to the dust bowl.

We've got Australian producers who are now facing the impacts of tariffs because other countries are putting in place carbon adjustment mechanisms, which means that if Australia isn't going to price carbon they'll do it for us. What is the Prime Minister's response to Australian producers who are going to be faced with these tariffs simply because the government didn't do enough? What is the excuse from the Prime Minister in relation to these issues? Why is he being so stubborn? Is it because he doesn't accept the science? Is it because he can't take on the lunatics on his backbench, the tinfoil hat brigade? Or is it simply because he doesn't actually care, because he thinks it's somewhere way beyond, out in the never-never?

We're running out of time. It's crystal clear that this decade to come is the decade we have to use to take action. If we don't reduce carbon pollution and don't transition away and out of coal, oil and gas—those dirty fossil fuel energy sources—we are not going to be able to arrest climate change, and the worst fears of extreme weather and temperature rise will be impossible to reverse. We're here for another couple of days and this parliament's going to be sitting next week. It's time for the Prime Minister to be upfront and honest with the Australian people as to what he will do when he goes to Glasgow at the end of the year. So I ask the Prime Minister: will he continue to make Australia a pariah on the global stage, condemning our producers, our communities and our environment here in Australia to the dust bowl, or will he stand up for proper climate action not just in his own party room but around the rest of the world?

There's an election not too far away. It'll be sometime in the next six months. The Australian people are seeing through this antiscience, anticlimate, antiplanet Prime Minister and his government. Those in South Australia who care deeply about protecting the environment and our clean, green industries and want to provide a future for our kids which guarantees clean water, a living Murray and clean air can't vote for the Morrison government. The only people you can honestly trust at this next election to take on the big polluters, the companies who make a lot of profit out of polluting and the antiscience, antiplanet agenda of the Morrison government are, of course, the Greens, because we will never bow to the pressure of the coal lobby, the gas lobby or the oil lobby. We will always stand by what the science says and stand up for what the planet needs.

So, as people get ready for the election and think about what they want for the future of their communities and the future of their kids, they must make sure they send a strong green voice to Canberra to stand up for them, for the future of their children and for the protection of their environment—our environment. Protect our planet, because you can't trust the Morrison government or the cronies who continue to take donations from the coal, oil and gas lobby. They have no interest in protecting the environment or your kids' future or in making sure we have clean air and clean water in the years to come.