Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

The question of whether the new Prime Minister intends to make a dramatic shift towards rational, long-term solutions to the big challenges will be answered in large part by whether he is able to turn around the government's disastrous approach to climate change and its short-sighted approach to renewable energy and energy efficiency. It is a relief to have a coalition Prime Minister who actually believes in climate change. However, as far as the climate is concerned, it will not matter whether the Prime Minister is Tony Abbott or Malcom Turnbull if there is no change in the policies, if there is no greater commitment to emissions reduction, if we do not provide more significant assistance to poorer countries though the international climate finance mechanism and if Australia does not support a strong and fair 2020 global climate agreement in Paris.

Labor has always understood that dealing with climate change is an economic challenge as much as it is an environmental problem. Our planet simply cannot survive the accelerating plunder of a limited supply of natural resources. It cannot survive the warming that will soon rise to dangerous and irreversible levels if global cooperation on significantly reducing emissions is not achieved. Economic growth must be decoupled from a growth in carbon emissions, especially as we work together to raise the living standards in those parts of the world that face disadvantage.

Unfortunately, in Australia we have one of the few governments in the world that has chosen to go backwards. As Christiana Figuerres, who leads the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said:

Where capital goes over the next fifteen years is going to decide whether we’re actually able to address climate change and what kind of a century we are going to have ... What we truly need is to create a ‘surround sound’ where, no matter what sector you turn to, there is a signal saying, ‘Folks, we are moving toward a low-carbon economy. It is irreversible; it is unstoppable. So get on the bandwagon.’

The Australian community is very much on that bandwagon, and that includes business as well as ordinary households, many academics, economists, scientists, local governments and others within the community.

In my electorate of Fremantle, there are many examples of individuals, businesses and local government taking the lead when it comes to reducing emissions and embracing the amazing potential of renewable energy. Fremantle has the first accredited carbon-neutral high school in Australia, at South Fremantle Senior High School. It has only the second carbon-neutral local government, at the City of Fremantle, which has also pioneered an Australian-first shallow geothermal and gas cogeneration plant for heating the pools at its leisure centre. And Fremantle is home to a world-leading wave energy innovator in Carnegie Wave Energy.

Last month Fremantle played host to a working group meeting of the United Nations Environmental Program's Environmental Assessment Group, which is part of the successful framework of action and analysis established under the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to save the planet from ozone depletion. Kofi Annan, the then Secretary-General of the UN, labelled the Montreal Protocol as 'perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date'. We need to follow that model and create an even more successful international agreement, and that process needs to be meaningfully advanced in Paris at the Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

Over the past few weeks, I have had a number of meetings here in Parliament House with young people concerned about what Australia is doing on climate change and the consequences of continued inadequate action, not only for Australia but, more urgently, for our Pacific island neighbours, who face the real and deadly impact of rising sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events, the destruction of crops and the salination of water. The meetings with Oaktree, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Micah Challenge's Voices for Justice, the Medical Students' Association of Australia and Oxfam all emphasised the importance of Australia committing to take stronger action on climate change in the lead-up to the Paris climate change summit, as well as committing to better climate financing of developing countries and support for renewable energy technology.

Today, 10 eminent scientists held a briefing in parliament on the science of climate change and to discuss the impact of Australia's decision to sign the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the upcoming COP21. It was pointed out that mitigation measures bring positive economic benefits through lesser climate change damage and lower risk and that low-carbon systems bring local co-benefits and economic opportunities. It was also noted that technology develops quickly and costs less than expected. The mood of the meeting was hopeful that this is something that can be achieved with the right attitude and the commitment of all people and governments. My community in Fremantle wants Australia to be a leading player in developing a low-carbon economy and participating in global efforts to get serious about climate change. I have no doubt the Prime Minister is aware that he has taken the wheel of a government careering down the path of climate change ignorance and denial. The question is whether he has the strength of belief and purpose to do something about it before Paris.

See this speech in context