Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To honourable senators I recommend the publication titled Returning to our roots: how conservative environmentalism can win hearts and minds. I was favoured by the editors and invited to contribute a chapter, but my humble contribution is not what I wish to speak about this evening.

Rather, I wish to draw your attention to the foreword by Lord Gove. He writes:

The Conservative Promise is rooted in nature. To be a Conservative is to understand human nature, to shape politics in accordance with the impulses of the human heart, and to appreciate the beauty, wonder and importance of the natural world.

We South Australians understand the importance of nature in sustaining our lives. We rely on a healthy River Murray for our very existence. Like all peoples that live at the end of a river, we are always anxious about how those upstream treat the river and its precious water as it flows down to us. Now we fear our seas may be barren of life, suffocated or poisoned by the algal bloom. There are even suggestions that Goyder's Line, which has long advised where you can sustainably farm, is dropping lower and lower as a result of climate change.

More disheartening is that my side of politics has now abandoned seeking to reduce emissions by aspiring to reach a target. In stark contrast, the government is more willing to hold itself to account to a very public target. The unwillingness of so many to have a target—any target—is hard to comprehend, as it's the most conservative of practices to set an objective and measure your progress against it. None of the arguments and protestations can disguise that simple fact. There is no basis to argue that the youth of today are brainwashed to believe in climate action. There is no credibility to claim that there is another way or to suggest Australia should not be a leader. The Australian people and their talent should not be diminished in this way. Opposition policy has now broken the promise it once made to the world on emissions reduction and has abandoned traditional conservatism.

I acknowledge the road ahead will not be without difficulty. In transforming our economy, we must transform the way we derive our energy, manufacture goods and nurture our land. My preference is to embrace the challenge rather than run away with glib promises to possibly act in the future. Civilisation is a compact between the past, present and future generations. Conservatives have a sacred duty to keep this contract by handing over a more healthy world to the next generation. I renew my commitment to keeping this compact. In Genesis it is written:

The Lord God took man and put them in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

All religions of the world echo this sacred call to action. Real conservatives hear it.