Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had heard before I was elected to this House that Canberra was another world and I realised last night as we discussed the environment legislation that it is actually a parallel universe. This is a world that operates in the mind of the Prime Minister, a world in which, in the face of all of the evidence about global warming and all of the evidence in our own country of rising temperatures and increasing drought, climate change is just not worth worrying about. In John Howard’s world, the parliament of Australia can do exactly what it did last night: it can debate the central piece of environmental legislation—409 pages of it, plus an explanatory memorandum—which does not even mention the words ‘climate change’, let alone set out a strategy for Australia to do its part in combating it. It is a world where climate change is not just ignored but also deliberately written out of federal environmental policy.

After parliament last night, I went back to the hotel and watched the news and I was transported back to the real world—an actual physical planet in distress and a world in which the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was released and debated around the world. In that world, climate change is here. In the real world, it is here now and requires urgent worldwide action if real economic disaster is to be avoided. In this world of the Stern review, leaders around the world respond with urgency. But, back in Howard’s world, a world that he imposes on this nation—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member should refer to the Prime Minister by his title.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, back in the Prime Minister’s world, a world that he imposes on this nation, the Prime Minister is a man in denial. He is a man without the will or the energy to literally rewrite the way we think about energy and our relationship with the planet. Make no mistake—we need nothing less.

By 2009 we will already begin to see rising sea levels damage and flood coastal areas, and extreme weather. By 2011 we will see the Great Barrier Reef permanently damaged. By 2015 we will see some of our mighty rivers stop flowing. And by 2030 temperatures may rise by more than two degrees centigrade and water supplies can be expected to drop by 25 per cent.

We as a nation, along with all the other nations around the world, have been living way beyond our environmental means, and we have been doing it for decades. If we do not fundamentally change the way we do things, our way of life, our health and our future are in real jeopardy. Climate change is here, and we as a nation—that is all of us: all levels of government, all communities and each of us individually—need to change the way we do things in order to change this nation’s course.

We need a Prime Minister who will lead us—not in a fantasy world but in the real world. Our Prime Minister is a man who thinks that the effects of climate change are still 50 years away and who said, just a month ago, that his government was not really interested in ‘what might happen to Australia and the planet in 50 years time’. That is our Prime Minister. The man charged with leading this country to the new realities of life on a warming planet still thinks the problem is 50 years away, and he does not care.

The Stern review makes it abundantly clear that we do not have 50 years. It is an interesting document, and a scary one. It makes the scientific case for urgent action. The science we have seen before; this is the first time we have really seen the economic case put together. The Stern review forecasts that one per cent of GDP must be spent now in tackling climate change to ward off a 20 per cent downturn in the world economy. One per cent of GDP is a lot of money, about the same amount that we spend on advertising, for example.

The commissioner of the report summed up the required change in attitude beautifully. He first comments that in the 20th century we pursued the twins of growth and full employment. He goes on to say: ‘In the 21st century our new objectives are clear. They are threefold: growth, full employment and environmental care.’ The reason is obvious and Stern makes the economic case. We cannot any longer sustain full employment and growth without environmental care. Floods from rising sea levels could displace 100 million people, including quite a few of us. Droughts may create tens or even hundreds of millions of climate refugees. If we keep ripping the guts out of our planet, mother nature will shut us down. Stern’s message is simple: act now and act big. If we do not, we will have to choose between growth and our fabulous environmental icons like the Barrier Reef.

We need someone to lead the change, and the Prime Minister is not that person. Even those who admire him at best say he is ‘steady as she goes’. When it comes to the environment he is more than relaxed and comfortable; he is asleep at the wheel. We need new ideas; we need new strategies. We are getting those from the opposition, but that is not enough—we need them from the government. We need new ideas; we need new strategies: we need a new government. (Time expired)