Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt, who is a very close colleague and a very popular member in Leichhardt too. Australia has already experienced warming, with an increase recorded in the number of days which have been hotter than 40 degrees Celsius. November this year has seen a long and intense heatwave across much of southern and eastern Australia. New daily maximum temperature records for November have already been set at Wilcannia, at 45.2 degrees, and Broken Hill, at 43.4 degrees, on 16 November. Last night in Melbourne the temperature was 28.1 degrees Celsius, which was a new record highest temperature for a November night. Today temperatures in much of south-eastern Australia will be very hot, predicted around 45 degrees, with strong winds in some areas. This has resulted, as the Prime Minister has pointed to earlier, in the highest fire danger alerts being issued in some areas of the country.

Whilst of course we are cautious about interpreting specific daily weather events like these, the trend is absolutely clear: our climate is warming. But of course there is continued disunity among the coalition—there are two camps, as I have adverted to on a number of occasions. It should be recognised that a number of Liberal senators, now that the debate on the CPRS has commenced in the Senate, were yesterday supporting the position of the Leader of the Opposition in the good faith negotiations with the government. One of those senators, Senator Boyce, supports an amended CPRS ahead of Copenhagen and said:

I would like to see the package of bills passed and there is no reason why we cannot pass them ahead of … Copenhagen…

A sound observation from Senator Boyce. But of course the rival Liberal camp of sceptics has been well and truly unleashed in the Senate. Senator Minchin, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, only today said:

The Senate overwhelmingly rejected the abomination in August; it should do so again.

This is the Leader of the Opposition, the leader of the Liberal Party, in the Senate, saying the CPRS is an abomination and it should be voted down again. We understand that there were no fewer than 17 senators sitting in close proximity to Senator Minchin giving him plenty of verbal support. We have their names and I am happy to provide them.

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