Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As did two of my colleagues previously, I rise to talk about climate change and global warming—and about the effects that it would have on the seat of Hindmarsh. We all know that our shorelines are dynamic environments and subject to multiple pressures. We know that wave and tidal movements can be amplified and the pressure on our fragile shoreline intensified, increasing the damage to our beaches and the dunes that buffer the sea from the land on which we live.

Regrettably, we also know that things are likely to get only worse as a result of the indisputable rise in sea levels caused by global warming. Whether or not this government believes the evidence based conclusions reached by the vast amount of scientific consideration, I assure you that the people of Adelaide’s western suburbs, in the electorate of Hindmarsh, know that there is a problem. The dominant question pertains to how bad the situation of sea level rise will become—and will the government take action and take this issue seriously? I think we have seen the answer to that in their actions over the last 10 years.

Flooding projection research indicates that Adelaide’s coastline would move inland as far as the suburb of Hilton in my electorate. That would flood the majority of land between Adelaide CBD and the current shoreline, including Adelaide Airport. That includes the majority of the seat of Hindmarsh. This was also reported in the Advertiser on 28 August last year.

In question time yesterday the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources was quoted as saying on 3 February:

... the geology ... of the east coast ... is adequately elevated to deal with a one-metre sea rise ...

He was also quoted as saying that claims about rising sea levels are ‘very exaggerated’. Not only do I disagree with the minister’s remarks but also I am alarmed by the minister’s lack of regard for Australians who live elsewhere along the coastline, including in my electorate of Hindmarsh.

A one-metre rise in sea levels would have highly substantial effects on Australia’s coastline. But, as I said, my principal concern is for the people of Adelaide’s western suburbs, whose plight this minister appears not to have even bothered to consider. Rising sea levels could displace up to 150,000 residents from Adelaide’s inner residential coastal area in the future and projections are that this area could be lost to rising sea levels as a result of global warming and rising seas. This is an unimaginable threat to local residents and businesses and the federal government must act now.

It was very difficult for me to win the election for the seat of Hindmarsh—it took me many years—and it will be difficult to hold. But that is not my biggest worry. It is one thing to lose your seat to your opponent, but no-one wants the seat to be lost to the sea. In 2001, conservative scientific consensus estimated a rise of between eight millimetres and 88 millimetres over the course of this century. Most recent advice narrows the tolerance and the high watermark to 58 centimetres but does not incorporate the dynamic nature of what we are discussing. While members of the government may shrug their shoulders and say in the face of a one-metre rise in sea levels that the eastern seaboard will be okay, as the minister was quoted as saying, the projection does not incorporate the effects of the loss of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic melting. A loss of the Greenland ice sheet would cause a seven-metre rise in sea levels, and if these events happen then look out. A one-metre rise in sea levels will look more like a minor effect of the moon.

The Australian Greenhouse Office published CSIRO advice in 2002 that a coastline could possibly retreat horizontally by 50 to 100 times the vertical sea level rise. For a one-metre rise in sea levels, there could be a loss of up to 100 metres of shoreline, and that includes many thousands of homes, hundreds of businesses and billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and amenities. That advice was actually disputed by Dr Peter Cowell. Dr Cowell’s estimates suggest that a beach recession, or coastal erosion, could be almost twice as serious as indicated by the Allen Group report for the same climate change projections.

This research identified that Sydney’s Spit Bridge, the Manly ferry terminal and Nielsen Park are at risk with a sea level rise of less than one metre, and also the loss of Narrabeen beach and others—and that is without the loss of the Arctic or the Greenland ice sheet. (Time expired)