Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tropical Cyclone Narelle has left a trail of devastation across WA, Queensland and the NT. Let us be clear: the burning of fossil fuels is driving the climate crisis and it is intensifying extreme weather events like this record-breaking cyclone, which is now impacting our communities directly. In WA, homes and businesses have been destroyed. Entire towns have been inundated by floodwaters. Wildlife is exhausted and displaced and, tragically, marine life is washing up along our shores. In Carnarvon, a community already battered by a summer of heatwaves, crops have been destroyed. Farmers are describing the damage as 'utterly devastating'. In Exmouth, residents have faced a massive clean-up bill. Ningaloo Reef, a World Heritage treasure, has already faced record coral bleaching this summer and has been further shattered by this cyclone. Our fragile oceans are under immense pressure, and the cyclone is another devastating setback.

Climate scientists have been sounding the alarm for years. The burning of fossil fuels is driving global heating, leading to more frequent and intense cyclones. Governments must take action. This means no new fossil fuel projects. It means holding fossil fuel companies to account. Companies like Woodside should have to pay for the impacts of their climate disasters. I know WA is far from this place, but I do hope the government looks hard and long at the impacts on our communities—at the washed-up dead wildlife—and chooses to be bold in both climate prevention and climate mitigation.