The devastation we have witnessed in Nepal and Tibet, China has been catastrophic. We have seen the terrifying force of floodwaters tear through towns and villages and homes, roads and bridges swept away. The scale of the destruction is almost beyond comprehension. Families have lost loved ones. Thousands of people remain missing, and amongst them are 36 Australians. I want to acknowledge how distressing this time is for their loved ones and how much harder this becomes with every day that passes. Every hour without news is another hour of waiting, of hoping and of fearing.

The Australian government is doing all we can to find Australians who remain unaccounted for to support loved ones and to assist in the disaster response. We have deployed almost 50 officers to the region to support search, rescue and recovery efforts. Officials in Kathmandu, Beijing, New Delhi and Canberra are working around the clock to establish the whereabouts of Australians, meeting directly with family members who have travelled to Nepal desperate for information; seeking answers from local authorities, tour operators, hospitals and other organisations; and pursuing every possible avenue for information.

Dedicated case officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Federal Police have been assigned to support the next of kin of those missing, giving families a consistent point of contact in an unimaginably difficult time. In addition to this, two Services Australia social workers arrived in Kathmandu last night and a dedicated family support hub is being set up by our embassy. From the outset, the Australian government made clear that we stood ready to help Nepal, including on search and rescue efforts, and we continue to offer assistance to China.

Specialist Australian drone operators have now travelled to Nepal as part of a 15-person disaster assistance response team drawn from Fire and Rescue NSW and the Queensland Fire Department. They bring advanced technology capable of rapid mapping, imaging and supporting searches in extraordinarily challenging terrain. AFP disaster victim identification specialists are also deployed to Nepal, and we have provided telecommunication data to Nepali authorities with the hope that this may narrow the last known location of missing Australians.

We know that most of the unaccounted for Australians were last known to be in the Gyirong and Syabrubesi areas. Nepali search and rescue teams are on the ground in both areas, and we are working directly with the authorities to gather any information we can. Australia has committed $11 million in humanitarian assistance, supporting emergency shelter, food, clean water, sanitation, health care and other essential supplies. A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 has delivered almost 24 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Nepal, and Australians have responded with characteristic generosity, donating $4.5 million of their own money to the Emergency Action Alliance. We have matched the donations from the Australian people with a $5 million contribution from the government to the EAA.

Colleagues, we know the grief and anxiety of this disaster reach deeply into our communities. Australia's Nepali community is grieving for family, friends and communities in the region. Members of Australia's Tibetan community are also experiencing great anguish. For many Hindu Australians, including those with connections to the pilgrimage routes and the sacred places of this region, this disaster has brought deep sorrow. To each of these communities, we extend the sympathy and solidarity of this parliament.

The search, rescue and recovery response continues, and we know the road ahead will be long. Infrastructure must be rebuilt, communities will need shelter, and essential services will need to be restored. Families will need support long after the immediate phase of this emergency response has passed. We will continue to stand with Nepal through that long road of recovery, ready to provide further search, rescue and recovery assistance where needed. Today, this Senate mourns all those who have lost their lives, and we hold close those still waiting for news. We thank the responders in Nepal, in Tibet, China, and from Australia who continue their work in very difficult circumstances. On behalf of the Australian government, I express my deepest sympathies to all those affected.

I rise on behalf of the coalition to contribute to this motion. On the morning of 26 August, high in the Langtang range on the border between Nepal and Tibet, part of a glacier gave way. What came down was not a flood as we here understand the word to be. It was a wall of ice, rock and mud, moving with such force that seismometers on the other side of the world recorded it as an earthquake. It ran for close to 100 kilometres. Villages that had stood for generations were gone within the hour. More than 1,300 people are confirmed dead, and thousands more remain missing. This is the deadliest disaster Nepal has suffered since the 2015 earthquake. Communities that were reachable by car a fortnight ago cannot now be reached at all. Tibetan communities are also suffering.

Thirty-six Australians still remain unaccounted for. They were travelling in separate pilgrimage and tour groups. The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Ted O'Brien, made clear how deeply concerned the coalition is for those Australians and the families waiting for a phone call. As the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Taylor, emphasised, after meeting with the Nepalese Australian community in Western Sydney, this is a terrible tragedy that cuts so close to home. Mr Taylor shared that his very first international journey nearly 40 years ago began in Nepal, where he first came to know the extraordinary warmth, generosity and resilience of the Nepalese people. He and Mr O'Brien have both made clear on behalf of the coalition that our desire to help these communities get back on their feet rises above politics.

Australia is actually now home to one of the fastest growing Nepalese communities in the world, in my own state of Western Australia as much as anywhere else. They work hard and they look after their own. Many send money back to their parents and villages, and for the past fortnight they have been raising money for a country they currently can't get home to. To every Nepalese Australian listening today: you are not grieving alone. We know that the physical distance from home right now only deepens the agony of uncertainty.

One moment, though, says something about both countries. The Nepal cricket team was here in Australia when the flood came. Before their match in Darwin, the ground fell silent for a minute. Those young men were a very long way from home with no idea whether their own families were alive, and an Australian crowd stood up with them. That is the sort of thing this country does without being asked.

Behind the headlines, we must also recognise the sheer scale of the hardship continuing on the ground today. In rugged valleys cut off from the outside world, rescue teams are navigating treacherous terrain where bridges have vanished and roads have been swallowed by miles of thick mud. The physical toll on local responders has been immense.

I record the coalition's thanks to the consular officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who have been working tirelessly on the ground and behind the scenes, to the Australian Defence Force and to the disaster response team now working on the Nepalese-Tibetan border. We acknowledge, too, the Nepal army and the Nepalese police, who have carried the overwhelming weight of this and lost people of their own in doing that. To the government, the people of Nepal, the families in Tibet who have suffered alongside them and every Australian family still just waiting on that phone call, the coalition extends its deepest sympathy.

On behalf of the Australian Greens, we send our love and our solidarity to the Nepalese community and everyone impacted by the catastrophic flood disaster. We stand with communities across the Himalayas in their grief for this devastating loss. This is a disaster that is inexorably linked to the climate crisis.

Others have spoken to the scale of this disaster. More than 1,300 people are confirmed dead across Nepal and Tibet. More than 5,000 are still missing. More than 50,000 have been driven from their homes. Those are the numbers. Behind each of those is a family, including Australian families—pilgrims coming home from Mount Kailash, trekkers, students, a serving member of the RAAF and families from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne who set off on the trip of a lifetime. I cannot imagine the terror they felt as those floodwaters came rushing down.

One Australian family has already had the news that I know many others are dreading. To Michael Keats's partner, his family and his friends and the whole Mollymook community: we're so deeply sorry for your loss. To every family still waiting by the phone: we're holding on to hope with you, and we're grateful for every Australian found safe over the past fortnight.

I want to thank the people doing the finding: the Nepal army and police, the guides, the porters and the villagers who were digging with their hands before official help arrived; Australia's disaster response team; the Queensland and New South Wales fire crews; the AFP identification and family liaison teams; and the DFAT consular staff who were the voice on the other end of the phone. Thank you.

I thank the government for moving quickly on aid and on people, and I urge it to keep going, because the need will outlast the news cycle. Australia knows climate disasters better than most nations, and our help should match the scale of this one. To the Nepalese community in Australia and the families who've held vigils in Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne while their own relatives are unaccounted for: we see you and we grieve with you.

Every condolence motion in this place carries a commitment to learn the lessons. Let me speak to them plainly. Nepal's glaciers have lost a third of their ice in 30 years. The Himalaya is warming faster than the global average. The UN's own climate chief said last week that a warming climate driven by burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas is making tragedies like this one more likely. It was not unpredicted, and, sadly, it very likely won't be the last time that we're standing here in this place offering condolences for this sort of climate disaster.

There is an injustice at the heart of it. Nepal produces a 10th of one per cent of the world's emissions, and yet it is the people of Nepal who are pulling their neighbours out of the mud. I know some will say that a condolence motion is not the time—I've heard that after every bushfire and every flood—but if when a glacier falls on a village is not the time, then when is?

Scientists will take time to fully attribute this event, and they should, but Nepal's Foreign minister has spoken plainly about why this disaster happened, and we should too. We honour the dead with what we do next. Nepal has written to the global loss and damage fund, asking for emergency help. Australia has put $50 million into that fund, and we should be the loudest voice backing Nepal's request. This is an important start, but we owe it to all those affected to stop making the next disaster more likely—by keeping our coal in the ground and our gas in the ground here now. We can do it and we should do it.

To Nepal: you've welcomed Australians into your mountains for generations. You're not alone in this. We're with you today and we will be with you for the long road back.

I would like to briefly echo the condolences that have been provided here to the people of Nepal and to everybody who has lost their lives or lost loved ones through this shockingly tragic natural disaster—especially to the 1,300 people who did lose their lives with almost no warning and no ability to prepare. It's one of the worst natural disasters in modern times, and the whole world has expressed its condolences, as we do here in the Australian Senate today. There are still over 5,000 people missing, showing the scale of this event. I too want to recognise the efforts of all of those seeking to find and rescue those who are missing in what are still seemingly very treacherous conditions and putting their own safety and lives at risk.

I especially want to recognise the one Australian who's lost his life, Mr Michael Keats. The thing that has struck me about this natural disaster is how many people we have lost who were in the prime of their lives. This seemingly was quite a remote and adventurous part of the world and clearly attracted a lot of people in the prime of their lives to have an adventure in what looks like a stunningly beautiful but hard-to-get-to place in the world. Mr Keats was on his own adventure there—a spiritual retreat, apparently—in the prime of his life and leaves behind a partner and family. We express deep condolences to them for their loss.

There was great news that two Australians had been found, so I thank again all those people who have been tireless in their efforts in seeking to have the better outcomes prevail. But I do recognise, too, that 36 Australians are still missing, and our thoughts go out to those families waiting for the news. We hope very much for the best.

I thank the Australian government for putting forward some humanitarian assistance and some funding. I believe a humanitarian team of Australians are there, deployed with drones, with new technology, to seek to find people. It's great to see Australia helping out in these times of difficulty as we always do. We will, as a country, be there not just at this time—it will take a lot of rebuilding for the people of Nepal. I'm sure we and the Australian government will do all we can to help the people recover from and rebuild after this tragic event.

Once again, I just wanted to briefly express my condolences to all of those who've lost their lives and to the families that are left behind. While we're making this short recognition here today, we need to make sure we don't forget as people seek to recover in what is a tough and difficult part of the world.

I rise to add my condolences about the floods in Nepal and Tibet. We have seen extraordinary images of water taking everything in its path: whole villages, roads, bridges, homes. More than a thousand people have died, and we know that many thousands more are still missing. A loss of this scale is hard to take in. We know that there are many Australians still unaccounted for. Many family and friends will be sitting with deep grief at the moment, and this grief is being felt here in Canberra, home to thousands of Australians who have Nepali family and friends. The Nepali community is woven right through this city now. For a lot of those families, this has been an awful week, one spent getting on with normal life on the outside while quietly waiting for news from home, desperately worrying about loved ones and not knowing whether the people they love have survived.

Over the past week, I've spoken with members of the Nepali community here in Canberra. They are desperate for news. They have watched the devastation from afar with a real sense of helplessness, of wanting to be able to help out but knowing that they simply cannot. They are trying to get in touch with loved ones and sending their prayers and hoping for the best but really grappling with the reality of the scale of the devastation.

One of the things that were raised with me is the huge impact on communities and the environment now, but people are aware of the long, long road ahead when it comes to some sort of recovery and rebuild and the uncertain future that people in this part of the world and indeed across the world face with our changing climate, as the climate begins to break down and we see more and more of these events happening. They've urged me to relay to the government concerns about being there as the rebuild happens and ensuring that there is ongoing support for a country that, on its own, will very much struggle to rebuild after this sort of event.

The thing that stayed with me is how much people are holding each other up. Families who are frightened for their own loved ones are still checking in on neighbours still sitting with those who have had the worst news and are still finding ways to raise money for people back home. Many senators have talked about that spirit. It's at the hardest of times that we see the human spirit rise and people looking after one another. That is who this community is here in Canberra, and we are lucky to have them.

To the Nepali community here in Canberra, on behalf of Canberrans, I say we are deeply sorry. You're not on your own in this. If you're worried about someone caught up in the floods, please get in touch with DFAT. Those numbers are online. Get in touch with my office, and we'll do everything we can to help point you in the right direction. Obviously, the Senate's thoughts are with the people in Nepal.

I rise today to offer my condolences arising from the devastating floods and landslides that have affected communities across Nepal, Tibet and parts of China. My thoughts are with the families of the 36 Australians who remain unaccounted for following this disaster. While six Australians who were missing have now been found safe, there are still dozens of families waiting for answers, and the uncertainty they face is unimaginable. This is an extremely distressing time, and every hour that passes it only gets harder.

This tragedy is being felt particularly strongly in my own community of Glenroy. Glenroy is the home to Victoria's largest Nepali community, some of whom I'm lucky enough to call my friends. The raw heartbreak of this disaster is being felt right across our community. Many families are searching for answers right now and have spent the past weeks desperately trying to contact loved ones or searching for information about family members in affected areas. Across our community, there is an enormous sense of grief, anxiety and uncertainty. I want the Nepalese Australian community in Glenroy and right across Australia to know that we see your pain and we stand with you. You do not face this difficult time alone. We mourn with you, we hope with you and we will continue to support you.

At least 1,300 people have lost their lives, and thousands more remain missing. Entire communities have been devastated. Homes, roads, bridges and critical infrastructure have been destroyed. Search and recovery efforts continue under extraordinarily difficult conditions, with damaged communications networks and many areas remaining inaccessible.

In the face of this tragedy Australians have shown remarkable generosity. Communities across the country have come together through vigils, fundraising events and community gatherings. Australians have donated more than $4½ million to the Emergency Action Alliance appeal, with the Australian government matching those donations through a $5 million contribution. That generosity is something we should be proud of and reflects the deep connections that exist between Australia and Nepal, and it reflects the compassion so many Australians feel for those affected.

The Albanese government is continuing to support search, rescue and recovery efforts, and Australian officials in Kathmandu are working around the clock to locate unaccounted-for Australians and to support their families. They are working closely with the Nepali authorities, hospitals, tour operators and emergency services while dedicated case officers continue to provide updates and support next of kin. Australian crisis response specialists have been deployed to Nepal alongside a disaster assistance response team that includes specialist drone operators from Australian emergency services, and their expertise and technology are assisting Nepali authorities in search and rescue operations. Australia has also provided telecommunications data that may assist in identifying the last known locations of missing Australians.

Beyond the immediate response, Australia has committed $11 million to support urgent relief and recovery, delivering emergency shelter, food assistance, essential health services, hygiene kits, solar lighting and other critical supplies requested by the government of Nepal. Royal Australian Air Force aircraft have delivered almost 24 tonnes of humanitarian supplies to Kathmandu, including solar lights, generators and community support equipment.

Of course these measures are important, but today I want to return to the people at the centre of this tragedy. To every member of the Nepalese Australian community carrying the weight of uncertainty and each of the 36 families waiting for news and to those gathering in prayer, attending vigils and supporting one another through this difficult time: please know that Australia stands with you. Our thoughts remain with those who are missing, with those who have lost loved ones and with the communities working to recover and rebuild. And to the people of Glenroy and the wider Nepalese community in Victoria and our country: we are thinking of you, we are standing with you and we are hoping alongside you for answers, for healing and for the safe return of those still unaccounted for.

The devastating natural disaster that struck Nepal and parts of Tibet on 26 August has left a gaping hole in the hearts of many in Australia and of course many in the region. Lives have been lost, communities have been swept away and a nation has been left broken in many respects. I want to join with my colleagues in expressing my most sincere condolences to the people of Nepal and the people of Tibet for their terrible loss of life and most particularly to the Australian Nepalese community, who have lost many of their families and relatives in this terrible disaster.

This is a disaster in which over 1,300 people so far have been confirmed dead and some 5,000 people are still missing and unaccounted for, including 600 foreign nationals from many nations across the world, because Nepal is a country that has opened its hearts and beauty to so many foreigners who are intrepid and adventurous, including many Australians. Sadly, they have now found themselves in the eye of this disaster. Thirty-six Australians still remain unaccounted for and, sadly, one death has been confirmed—that of a New South Wales resident. But I know that many of the families whose loved ones have been caught up in this and who are yet to have news are in an incredible state of distress and uncertainty, and I feel for them very deeply.

The generosity of the response that has been seen has been remarkable and true to our spirit. We've seen Australians open not only their hearts but also their wallets to support the Nepalese community. I've been contacted by a number of people in my community desperate to send assistance to the people of Nepal and finding every potential way they can help. I know the Non-Resident Nepali Association, the NRNA, has been helping to coordinate assistance.

As the Minister for Foreign Affairs mentioned, there's been $4.5 million donated already to the Emergency Action Alliance to support these efforts, and I commend the government for their generosity and the promptness of the humanitarian assistance that has been offered. That enjoys bipartisan support—$11 million in disaster relief but, as importantly, the dispatching of experts to help with the disaster assistance response, to help seek and identify those missing and to help with the search and rescue efforts.

I wanted express my support here for Fire and Rescue NSW, for the Queensland Fire Department and for the Australian Defence Force, who've all been involved in this assistance effort—but also for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the many consular and development assistance staff both involved in this effort on the ground in Nepal but also supporting operations back here in Australia.

This natural disaster, the worst Nepal has suffered in well over a decade since the earthquakes in 2015, has left a terrible scar upon the Australian Nepalese community—one of the most generous, vibrant, involved and engaged communities we have in Australia. I joined with other parliamentary colleagues for a vigil in Martin Place just two days after that devastation, and there have been similar vigils held all around the country hosted by the Nepalese community but with many non-Nepali Australians in attendance, showing the level of support that the Nepalese community has.

I have a simple message for the Australian Nepalese community and those Australians whose families have been caught up in this disaster. Firstly, we mourn alongside you in your grief and we share your anxiety, your uncertainty and your suffering. We join your prayers for the safety and location of those of your loved ones who are still missing. As importantly, we will stand alongside you in the long effort to rebuild Nepal to the country it was, to help these devastated communities to recover, to help heal the wounds from what has been a horrific natural disaster by any measure, and to help the people and the nation of Nepal recover.

I express my deepest condolences and solidarity with the people of Nepal and Tibet. To every person who has lost a child, a parent, a grandparent, a partner, a sibling or a friend; to those whose homes and communities have been swallowed up by mud and debris; and to the families here in Australia living through the unbearable agony of knowing that their loved ones may not come home, my heart is with you.

The immense grief so many are feeling right now cannot be an excuse for silence about why catastrophes like this are becoming more frequent, more extreme and more devastating. This was not some random, unforeseeable tragedy. Nepal hardly contributes to global warming, yet they are now paying the price of the insatiable appetite of others to extract and burn fossil fuels. For decades, climate scientists have warned us: keep digging up and burning coal, oil and gas. The planet will cook, glaciers will melt, and fires, floods and droughts will become more frequent and more extreme.

Those who contributed the least to and benefited the least from the destruction of our planet are suffering the most. While billionaires drink cocktails on superyachts, build luxury bunkers in New Zealand and sit in boardrooms with Labor, the Liberals and One Nation—plotting how to squeeze more money from more data centres and more coal and gas that will suck the earth dry—ordinary people, mostly in the Global South, are paying with their lives.

With the glacier collapse in Nepal and Tibet, more than a thousand people have been swept away and buried, while thousands are still missing. In Indonesia and Malaysia, millions are choking on toxic smoke from enormous wildfires. In Sudan, a country already devastated by war, drought is destroying crops and deepening the threat of extreme famine. This is climate breakdown. This is colonialism in action. The empire never really died. This is capitalism turbocharged.

Climate breakdown looms large on the landscape of global inequality, whether it is gender inequality or economic inequality; such disasters are magnified for women and girls and for those living in poverty. And, where colonialism is involved, racism is lurking right there, and it is writ large in the impacts of climate change. While those on billionaire lists—dominated by white men—get richer and richer and protect themselves from the worst consequences of climate breakdown, black and brown communities across the Global South are being flooded, burned, displaced, starved and buried, and the world looks away.

We see racism even in how this tragedy is being mourned. Look at the response to Nepal. Australians are still unaccounted for. Australian families are living through unimaginable grief. But many of those Australians have brown faces, so there has been a deluge of racist comments across social media, parroting far-right white supremacist lines about who does and doesn't get to be Australian. Climate racism is not only about who is hit hardest by floods, fires and famine; it is about whose suffering the wealthy world notices.

Australia is one of the world's biggest fossil fuel exporters. We cannot send condolences with one hand while feeding the climate crisis with the other hand. The Prime Minister doesn't want to talk about climate change at the exact time that it needs to be talked about, but the Labor government is fine, at this time, to approve coal and gas project after coal and gas project—at a time when the world is facing these climate disasters.

The people of Nepal and Tibet did not create this crisis. The corporations that made billions burning our planet did, and the political parties right here, who have been bought by these very corporations, are complicit. You've sold your soul to coal and gas corporations, and you enable every climate catastrophe that happens around the world. It is way past time to act to end fossil fuels and to end profit fuelled by extraction. Otherwise, the apocalyptic scenes that we have been seeing over the last couple of weeks are only going to get worse, and it will be on you. (Time expired)

My colleagues from the coalition and I rise today to stand with the people of Nepal and with the Nepalese Australian community following the devastating flood that struck 12 days ago. We grieve for the more than 1,300 that have been confirmed dead and for the thousands that are still missing. The footage from the ground is so confronting, and the scale of loss is just unimaginable. Now is the time to stand with our Nepalese friends, with support and with mateship. This tragedy will extend beyond this moment, with countless lives and livelihoods upended by this tragedy, and it will be felt in the months and years ahead.

This is not a distant disaster for Australia. There are 36 Australians that remain unaccounted for. We mourn Michael Keats of New South Wales, the first Australian who was confirmed dead, who reached the border crossing just minutes before the flood struck. We give thanks for those that have been found safe, including Cara Severino, and for the rescue crews, both Nepalese and international, that are working around the clock.

Also among those that are still waiting for news are Australian families of foreign nationals, including Abhijit Bhide, who is the chairman of the Australian Hindu Community. His sister and brother-in-law, both Indian nationals, both doctors in Mumbai, were crossing the border the morning that the flood struck. Theirs is one of the thousands of families trapped in agonising anticipation, waiting for a name to appear on the list of the rescued.

We should also recognise the Australians that have answered the call, none more so than Professor Arnold Dix, who helped free 41 workers from the Silkyara tunnels in the Himalayas. He's now lending that expertise to Nepal's flooded hydropower tunnels. Professor Dix insists that this remains a rescue and not a recovery. His refusal to give up hope, I think, speaks to the best in us all.

We also recognise DFAT, the crisis officials on the ground, and acknowledged that the Australian government has committed a further $3 million in aid, as well as some of the families who have flown to Nepal to search for their own. This is Australia playing its part in a global community, as we always have, as we always will and as we always should. We should all seek to extend our support to those who need it, when we can and where we can.

To the people of Nepal, Australia mourns with you and we hope alongside you. To the families still waiting, including the families of Australians that are still missing, this parliament holds you in its thoughts and we will not give up hope.

The floods that happened in Nepal and Tibet were absolutely devastating. The scenes that the world saw are apocalyptic and can only be described as everyone's worst nightmare. My thoughts are with all those that have lost loved ones or still don't know what happened to them. I can only imagine the pain you must be going through and want you to know that we are with you, we feel you and we hurt with you. The world is thinking of Nepal, and support for the rescue and clean-up efforts is being sent, as it should be.

Sadly, we know much less about the impact the flood has had on Tibet, though it is likely just as catastrophic, possibly even more so, due to China not releasing information or allowing support in. Independent international aid groups and journalists are prevented from entering Tibet, and I'm sure this is only just aggravating the situation. My thoughts are with the communities in Tibet and the Tibetans all over the world who fear for the lives of their loved ones but remain in uncertainty, not knowing when there will ever be certainty.

Sadly, I'm certain this will not be the only incident of this kind. We are headed for a world where these catastrophes will become more and more common—and it affects all of us. The government says now is not the time to talk about climate change, but actually now is exactly the time. We have no time to lose, or there will be more lives lost, more regularly. Scientists have said that increased temperatures have led to glacier melting, which resulted in the huge volumes of water that we saw last week. With global heating, mountainous areas are at risk of further glacial lake outburst floods and erratic rainfall, which in turn will increase flood and landslide risks.

Just last week, a landmark UN report was released which clearly stated the world will overshoot the 1.5 degrees climate target within the next few years—and this government has been mostly silent about it. In fact, no-one speaks about caring for country any more. It's like the world has reached a point where it's in the too-hard basket, and so it's easier that we just ignore there is a problem at all. But we know that, if we look after country, country will look after us.

We see the Labor government supporting more gas in the Beetaloo basin, where we know that's going to have devastating effects on not only the land and the water but the people themselves, where people will be forced to drink poisonous water—where you could light the water on fire—from fracking. And we have Minister Watt standing up getting his selfies, proud of the climate bombs he approves. It's the same with Murujuga, and the list goes on and on. We must act on global heating.

I see a lot of babies around this parliament today. It's a special day for those babies. What decisions get made in this place will affect their lives and their children's lives. That's how we as Aboriginal people think. We're here to serve our people of tomorrow. But the people in here don't give a damn about the people of tomorrow. All you care about is raping and pillaging land and water, which will ultimately kill us all off. We have to act and do everything that we can with everything that we have so that these climate catastrophes don't happen. We must phase out all fossil fuels as soon as possible and stop the delusional reliance on coal and gas. The people who have lost their lives must not have died in vain.

I too rise to support this condolence motion. Let me say at the outset that it is a great sign of respect and affection for our wonderful Nepalese Australian community that the first item of business of this Senate as it returns after the disaster that happened in Tibet and Nepal is this condolence motion, and that is fit and proper.

On 30 August 2026, I attended a candlelight vigil which was hosted by the Nepalese Association of Queensland in King George Square, in my home state of Queensland. Also in attendance were my friends from the other side of politics the Hon. Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Hon. Shayne Neumann, who's the federal member for Blair. All three of us, as federal representatives, were there in solidarity with our wonderful Nepalese Australian community, and all three of us have in the past attended festivals and celebrations which have been hosted by the Nepalese community of Queensland. These include traditional celebrations and sports days involving family members. We've seen the Nepalese Queensland community at times that have been happy and joyous, with a welcome extended to everyone in the community to participate in their festivals. So it was fit and proper that we be there with the Nepalese Queensland community in their time of need.

The Nepalese Australian community is part of the Australian story. They are part of the Australian story and they make a wonderful contribution to our country through their small businesses; through their employment and professions, working in our aged-care homes as nurses and in our hospitals; through their community sponsorships; and through opening up their hearts to everyone in the Australian community. They're really a great blessing for our Australian community. So now is the time for the Australian community to wrap its arms around our Nepalese Australian community. We are there for you, we are there with you, we feel your pain and we are here to give our Nepalese Australian community all of the support we possibly can. I'd like to commend the government on the contributions it has made in terms of both financial support and on-the-ground support in trying to find as many survivors as possible in the aftermath of these horrific events.

I would like to put something on the record as part of this condolence motion—the words of a leader of the Nepalese Queensland community. These are the words of Mr Tikaram Sarma, president of the Nepalese Association of Queensland:

EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION

On behalf of the Nepalese Association of Queensland (NAQ)and the Nepalese community across Queensland and Australia, I sincerely thank everyone who stood with us during the Candlelight Vigils for Nepal in Brisbane and across Australia.

We are deeply grateful to the Australian Government, governments at all levels, emergency services, multicultural communities and the wider Australian community for their compassion, solidarity and support.

We also sincerely appreciate the financial, logistical and technological assistance, as well as the support of expert rescue personnel sent to Nepal to assist those affected by this devastating disaster.

At a time of great sorrow and uncertainty, your kindness and solidarity reminded us that we are not alone.

We respectfully appeal to the Australian Government to consider extending technical and financial assistance to support Nepal's recovery and reconstruction once the immediate rescue and relief efforts are complete.

Thank you for standing with Nepal and our community.

Sincerely,

Tikaram Sarma

President

Nepalese Association of Queensland Inc. ( N AQ)

You can donate to the recovery efforts through the Nepalese Association of Queensland, and I've put a link on my website to their fundraising efforts.

Lastly, I want to commend the leadership of the Nepalese Australian community, including Tikaram. In many cases they have loved ones who they have not heard from. They're not sure what has happened to their own loved ones but, at the same time, they're providing support to members of their own community and reaching out to other parts of the Australian community. So my deepest, deepest respects go to Tikaram and to all the other leaders of the Nepalese community.

I rise again today, like so many others in this place, with a very heavy heart. I express my grief and my sadness at the news of the devastating mass floods that we have witnessed in Nepal and in Tibet. My heart aches for the more than 1,300 people whose lives have been lost, for their families and their communities, for the 5,000 people, their communities and their families, who are waiting for news, who are hoping, and we share their hope. We know this is a crisis which has destroyed the homes of 50,000 people in Tibet and in Nepal. It will be a long road back to recovery for these communities.

I want to acknowledge the pain of the Nepalese and Tibetan communities here in Australia. We share every year ceremonies with these communities, and we share here in the parliament concerns by the Tibetan community about their loved ones back in Tibet, their ability to communicate with them and be confident that their human rights are protected. I say to those people: 'You're not alone.' In South Australia, at vigils, South Australians have been contributing to the kinds of funds and support that we know will be essential to rebuild those communities. We're especially concerned about our friends in Tibet, where the flow of information has been tightly controlled by China.

As the Greens co-chair of the parliamentary friends of Tibet group, I'm lucky to have met so many wonderful members of the Tibetan community here in Canberra, in Adelaide, in other places around the country, who have made Australia their home and made Australia the better for being here and joining us. Tibetans have a right to know what is going on for their loved ones and their communities at home. They have a right to know that they're receiving the aid and support that they need in this devastating flood.

The people of Nepal and Tibet are the blameless victims of the rapidly changing climate. Scientists have been warning us for decades that events like these lie ahead. They've been telling us that the climate would contribute to floods, to fire and to other devastating events we are now witnessing. They have told us that the poorest people in the world, those who are not the source of the fossil fuel and pollution that is in our climate and causing the kinds of devastation we are witnessing, pay the highest price for the climate change which is causing such devastation, a high price for their families and communities.

Nepal's prime minister, Balen Shah, said that the flood in the Bhote Koshi River was not an 'ordinary flood'. He recognised the contribution of the climate crisis, while our own prime minister wants us to turn away from calling it, naming it and recognising it. Nepal's prime minister, Balen Shah, said:

This is the biggest disaster in the Himalayan region caused by an avalanche of snow and rocks. This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing with climate change. It is time for us to strongly raise the issue of the disasters we are facing due to climate change before the international community.

The leaders of these nations are asking us to recognise what is happening and the consequences for those communities, and yet we fail to act. Labor continues to open new fossil fuel entities. It continues to add to the climate crisis. I came to this Senate, like so many others, to fight—to fight for action on climate change and to fight for future generations.

Today, my four-year-old grandchild and their parent, Indi, are here in the parliament, and I want to be able to look to them and their generation and say, 'I did everything I could and I worked in this chamber to do everything I could to stop the kind of terrible event we have witnessed in Tibet and in Nepal.' I think of all the grandparents who have lost their grandchildren in this crisis, and I think of all the children who've lost their parents and their grandparents in this crisis. The community will bear the scars of this for a long time, for many decades ahead. This is a crisis that we must learn the lesson of: we need to make sure we stop contributing to making the climate crisis worse. In our sympathy and condolence, we need to take the action we must to end the crisis that fossil fuels—and our own Australian fossil fuels—continue to contribute to in larger and larger numbers.

That concludes the debate.