Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

April 2024 was the hottest April ever, globally; March 2024 was the hottest March ever, globally; and February 2024 was the same. The last 11 months have been the hottest ever. The Albanese government came to government promising that the climate wars were over, but what it's delivered to Australia with the Future Gas Strategy is a reopening of a wound which is a shame to this country. I don't know how members of the government can look at the children in their electorates, knowing what they are condemning them to, with the impact of fossil fuel emissions being apparent now. We're not kicking the can down the road; this is something with which our communities are already dealing.

The member for Parramatta has just spoken to us about the issues in Western Sydney and the heat islands in that part of the country, but so many parts of this country are dealing with the egregious effects of climate change now. The member for Curtin has already spoken to the same. There is no way that any member of the government who has looked at the science—who has seen members of the IPCC say on the weekend that 80 per cent of them believe that we will not avoid global warming to three degrees and beyond—can ignore that science. The Australian Academy of Science has said that global warming to three degrees and beyond is disastrous.

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