Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand to support the motion of the member for Leichhardt on the flooding of communities in the Torres Strait. I commend the member for the determination and passion he has shown in bringing this issue to the attention of the House. I know Western Australia is a long way away from the Torres Strait, but, as the member for Shortland and the member for Hindmarsh would recall, we visited the Torres Strait Islands back in 2010 and ran a health inquiry up there. We saw some of the degradation of the islands while we were there.

During the last sitting, I spoke in this place about the importance of maintaining river walls in my own electorate of Swan. My electorate shares a large section of its boundary with the Swan River and I understand the importance of river walls in maintaining the foreshore and protecting existing infrastructure along the river. Despite several requests, local councils—a group of 21 of them—have received no support from the federal government in dealing with the logistical and financial challenge of maintaining this critical infrastructure. As those affected in the Torres Strait well know, this is not a problem that can just be tucked under the rug by this government. With every delay in action, the problem becomes worse and the solution more expensive to implement.

As I said, the member for Leichhardt showed considerable passion in his speech, during which he said that this is about fixing the problem and not blaming local or state governments—which is just what the member for Moreton, who followed the member for Leichhardt, did in his speech. He started going back to the blame game, something this government promised years ago it would not indulge in.

Just yesterday, we read about the latest example of reckless waste by this government, with the Sunday Telegraphwebsite and Tim Andrews from the Australian Taxpayers Alliance describing the $3.27 million blown by jet-setting bureaucrats at the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. In the last year alone, officials from the department racked up more than 6.5 million kilometres of travel, producing 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, while going to talkfests about the warming planet in locations such as the Maldives, Vanuatu and the Caribbean. This extravagant travel expenditure is just one more in a long line of examples of wasteful spending by this government—wasteful spending being incurred whilst critical projects are being neglected. Officials appear to have significantly less enthusiasm for visiting the affected communities in the Torres Strait than they do for travelling to five-star resorts around the world.

This is behaviour that, unfortunately. we have come to expect from the government. The government is happy to organise summits and committees and send bureaucrats to luxurious talkfests, but, as the member for Leichhardt pointed out, when it comes to the critical task of actually taking action on issues or actually solving problems—even when the solution is as obvious as it is in this case—this government falls short time and again. Simon Crean, the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, made a commitment but reneged on his promise, shifting responsibility to the state and local governments and leaving locals with a commitment from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency which represents only a small fraction of what is needed to fix the problem. Instead of fixing the problem, the government is content to shift responsibility while the locals continue to suffer from flooding events and resulting damage. I note that while local council applications in my electorate are rejected and the damage bill to coastal infrastructure in the Torres Strait continues to mount, this government has spent over $328 million on international climate change initiatives to fund upgrades to infrastructure and coastal resilience overseas. That is the real crux of the matter: the government focuses on overseas projects before it focuses on Australian projects. As my colleague the member for Leichhardt has said, Torres Strait Islanders have every right to feel neglected and offended by the government's response. However, I do see hope at the end of the tunnel. The Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change listened to my recent speech on the river walls in Swan. He said that he would be happy to look at the issue and meet with some of the people from those councils, who are in Canberra at the moment, including the Mayor of the City of South Perth, Sue Doherty. He has said on a couple of occasions that he will make himself available. I applaud him for giving consideration to meet with the people who have been putting in submissions for river wall projects on the Swan River. I will finish by again stating my support for the Torres Strait Islanders. I support the member for Leichhardt. The huge commitments overseas should be matched in Australia.

See this speech in context