Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to speak on the recent IPCC report, specifically about the impacts of climate change on first nations people. First nations people not only in Australia but across the world have cared for country for thousands of years. We've lived in harmony with the land, water, plants, animals and seasons. We used what was available to us to create thriving and vibrant communities which have endured in Australia for over 65,000 years. This is our way of life and it's our culture. It is something that we hold on to closely as a way not only to connect us with our culture, but to connect us with the land and sea and also with our ancestors. This is in our blood, and it is our sovereign birthright.

Changing weather patterns, increased extreme weather events and rising sea levels put our culture at risk. We've already seen my brothers and sisters in the Torres Strait Islands having to build makeshift seawalls with coconut husks and driftwood whilst walking along the beach with a bucket to pick up the remains of loved ones that had been exposed due to the rising sea levels. This year First Nations communities have been displaced, forced to flee their country and separated from their communities in Western Australia and in the Northern Territory following catastrophic flood events.

The IPCC report found that increasing extreme climate events will impact food and water security and global ecosystems, which will have a greater impact on First Nations people. Further, responses that focus on sectors or risks in isolation, such as building seawalls, can worsen existing equities, especially for Indigenous people and marginalised groups, and decrease ecosystems and biodiversity resilience, and that this can be avoided by flexible, multisectoral, inclusive long-term planning and implementation of adaptation actions with co-benefits to many sectors and systems.

We know that climate change is not an isolated issue that only impacts on certain areas, sectors or communities; it is wide-reaching and will impact on all of us, but there are people who will be impacted more and impacted faster than others. Time and time again we've been told that it will be the ones who have contributed the least to climate change that in fact will be impacted the most. This includes first nations people across the world, small island nations and poorer nations. The report states that cooperation and inclusive decision-making with indigenous people and local communities, as well as recognition of the inherent rights of indigenous people, is integral to successful adaptation and mitigation across forests and other ecosystems. Further to that, drawing on diverse knowledges and cultural values, meaningful participation and inclusive engagement processes—including indigenous knowledge, local knowledge and scientific knowledge—facilitates climate resilience development. It in fact builds capacity and allows locally appropriate and socially acceptable solutions.

Australia and other richer nations play a vital role in limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees. The report was really clear: we need to reduce our emissions and move away from fossil fuels like our lives depend on it. We simply cannot keep opening up new fossil fuel projects and continuing to give public money to these giant polluters. It is untenable that, in the face of this report, the Labor government is still happy to look at the 116 coal and gas projects that are in the pipeline.

We still have a long fight ahead of us. The climate wars will not be over until we have a government that is not in the pocket of fossil fuel companies, that will take urgent action that is needed and ensure First Nations people are integral to that solution, not left behind to pick up the remains of their loved ones. Thank you.