Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Wong) to questions without notice I asked today relating to climate change.

Ninety per cent of all the heat trapped on this planet is stored by our oceans.

The biodiversity in our oceans, not just for communities but for commercial fisheries, as pointed out by Senator Wong, is closely linked to our reefs, especially our coral reefs. There is no greater existential threat to the world's coral reefs—indeed to all reef systems, like temperate reef systems in Tasmania—than marine heatwaves and warming oceans.

I understand that, today, we are likely to get an upgrade from the Bureau of Meteorology confirming that we are now in an El Nino cycle, so we'll have an El Nino summer. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, upgraded their status on El Nino some weeks ago. I don't know how many times in the last 11 years I've talked about warming oceans, coral bleaching and whether the Great Barrier Reef is in danger or not in danger—I've literally lost count. What we're seeing around the planet right now is unprecedented, and I've said that before. When we saw the first mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, back in 1998, followed by four coral bleachings in six years, it was all unprecedented. We hadn't even had a mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef until 25 years ago. Now we seem to be getting them every year. We even had a bleaching event in a La Nina year this year, which was totally unexpected. We are literally in uncharted territory.

Why aren't we listening? Why aren't we observing the world around us as leaders, decision-makers and politicians? Why aren't we acting? I really just don't get it, because I know there are good people in this chamber and in the other place. When UNESCO comes out and says, 'Well, we're not going to put you on the endangered listing,' the reason for that—for those of you who have been following this for many years—is that the previous government went to extraordinary lengths to lobby UNESCO to prevent this from happening. You need to ask yourself why, by the way. Why would you deny and deceive the reality and the truth that the Great Barrier Reef and indeed all the world's coral reefs are seriously in danger? Why would you deny that? Well, you can think about that. There are agendas here as to why not.

I can tell you that nothing we can do in the next six months, when UNESCO have said that they will review the draft decision they put out, will change what's going to happen to the Barrier Reef this summer. Heat is already trapped in our oceans. There are record marine heatwaves all around the world. There are record temperatures in the Atlantic, the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean. Forty-four per cent of our global oceans have recorded marine heatwaves. It's not just the terrestrial heatwaves; just about every temperature record around the world is being broken, just about every day, in the northern hemisphere. This is happening in our oceans. You can laugh all you like, Senator Roberts, but it's empirical evidence, to use your terms. It is happening right now.

For us to be denying that the reef is in danger when we know it is—let me tell you why that's dangerous. It lulls people into a false sense of security when a government does what it does today. I applaud Senator Wong's response to my questions today. She was honest about the impact that the burning of fossil fuels and rising emissions are having on our oceans and about the potential risks. That's good to see. But the government has been out today saying that they've essentially saved and secured the future of the reef. No, they haven't—not by a long shot—nor did UNESCO say that. The danger of this is that people get complacent, because they think the reef is fine. They think all our oceans and our Great Southern Reef are fine, when they're not. When they think that, they don't take any action, including political action, to get the situation changed. UNESCO said very clearly that we need urgent and sustained action to secure the future of the reef. The most important thing we can do is to stop all new fossil fuel projects and transition to a renewable energy economy.

Question agreed to.