Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate of Macarthur on the southern outskirts of Sydney recently experienced, like many other western areas, record high temperatures of 44 degrees and 46 degrees centigrade respectively on Friday and Saturday of last week. There has been a huge differential between coastal areas and the western suburbs. This has put increasing strain on already stretched resources. Macarthur is facing increasing developmental pressures and is growing rapidly. Western Sydney, on a population basis, is bearing the brunt of global warming. Much of the newer development is poorly designed to cope with high temperatures, with black-roofed houses, black-asphalted roads, poorly insulated houses and a lack of trees. Some classrooms and many trains are not air-conditioned. Poor public transport increases motor vehicle pollution. The evidence of global warming is now unequivocal, yet all we hear from this government is about some mythical non-existent concept called 'clean coal', a few cheap political stunts and no concrete action. Global warming costs money but also, more importantly, costs many lives. It is time this government forgot the politics and acted for the good of the Australian people, and the Macarthur electorate demands the government to act urgently on global warming.