Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a historic day today because we are at approximately the six-month anniversary of the date on which the Prime Minister announced, 18 months into his first term as Prime Minister, that 'good government starts today'.

I think it is ironic that the Prime Minister has chosen this day to announce some climate change targets, which are concerning signs for the way that this government is looking to tackle climate change. We see this as a hand-in-hand partnership with the unbelievable attack on renewable energies that has gone on over the last two years of this government.

We have an enormous amount to lose as a nation from a changing climate. Even at two degrees of warming we know that this is going to mean dramatic changes to our temperature during different seasons. We are going to see real significant challenges to our natural environment, including threats to the Great Barrier Reef. These are things that are unavoidable, probably, to us now in Australia. If we do not get climate change under control, we are looking at something like four degrees of warming that we will be leaving to our children and our grandchildren. This will mean dramatic changes to our way of life in Australia. The CSIRO has shown that under four degrees of warming the climate in Cairns will resemble what is today the climate of Jabiru—one of the hottest and driest parts of our country.

There are huge upsides to acting early on climate. It is, unfortunately, Labor that stands with basically the rest of the Australian people in understanding this while the Prime Minister lays blind. If we want good government to start, we do not need another six months of this. We need a new government.