Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about an issue that I campaigned extensively on in the lead-up to the 2007 federal election. I am referring to the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, the path that the previous government set us on and the inevitable impact which was sea level rise.

In 2007 I put together a comprehensive report to my electorate of Corangamite, spelling out the consequences of a one-metre sea level rise along with a one-metre storm surge. That report indicated that coastal community after coastal community along the more than 200 kilometres of coastline within the electorate of Corangamite would be inundated as a result of a rise in the sea level if we did not get on top of our greenhouse gas emissions. It was very pleasing that, through the course of 2007 and through the engagement I had with my electorate, community after community accepted that sea level rise is a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions and that my community wanted its strong view about the consequences taken to Canberra.

Corangamite is like many other coastal electorates. We have many thousands of dwellings within a few kilometres of the coastline. Many thousands of families live there and have done so for a significant period of time. Sea level rise is something they are particularly concerned about, not only in terms of potential inundation of their properties but also in terms of the fabulous coastline that the Great Ocean Road borders and the consequences on the environment—the ecosystem and bird and plant life along that coastline.

It was very pleasing that, over the weekend, the government released a comprehensive report identifying the Australian coastal areas most vulnerable to sea level rise. It was a report that built very strongly on the work of a parliamentary committee, chaired by Jennie George, the member for Throsby. It was a very substantial report that contributed to our understanding of climate change and the risks of sea level rise along our coastline.

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