Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. It's my great privilege to present to the House a petition that has been raised by Carol Bartlett and students from the Sapphire Coast Anglican School, a wonderful group of kids, teachers and the community.

The petition read as follows—

This petition of concerned people of the electorate of Eden Monaro draws to the attention of the House the severe and urgent threat that climate change poses to the health, well-being and security of all people around the world, particularly our poorest and most vulnerable neighbours. We remind the House that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are the highest per person among wealthy nations while our emissions reduction targets are among the weakest.

We therefore ask the House to do all in its power to protect communities in Australia and our region from the harmful impacts of climate change - such as more severe heat, extreme and unpredictable weather and rising seas by: - committing to deeper and more urgent reductions of our greenhouse emissions; - developing a plan to ensure Australia achieves zero net greenhouse emissions well before 2050, and supporting families and communities affected by the transition towards renewable energy and more sustainable land use; - providing additional assistance to help our poorest neighbours adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change.

from 1483 citizens (Petition No. PN0099)

Petition received.

The petition is asking the House to protect communities in Australia and in our region from the harmful impacts of climate change, such as more severe heat, extreme and unpredictable weather and rising sea levels, by committing to deeper and more urgent reductions of our greenhouse emissions, developing a plan to ensure Australia achieves zero-net greenhouse gas emissions well before 2050 and supporting families and communities affected by the transition towards renewable energy and more sustainable land use, providing additional assistance to help our poorest neighbours adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change.

About 1,250 signatures were gathered by the kids and the teachers. I'm very proud, because they have reacted to the issue that challenges their own future—the responsibility for us to ensure that we deliver a secure future for them against the potential ravages of catastrophic climate change—but also, more particularly, as I've mentioned in the past, our region is the canary in the coalmine of climate change. Our ski industry is worth about $2 billion a year. It's half the economy of the Monaro. We've seen reports piling on reports about the threat that's evolving. The CSIRO pointed out in reports last year that the season will be 80 days shorter by 2050.

I spend a lot of time with the Snowy Hydro people; I've been up there a lot. They have a tremendous amount of data which is showing beyond a shadow of a doubt the contraction of the ski season and the thinning of the snow. For them it's not an issue—they rely on any form of precipitation, whether it's in the form of rain or snow—but the data that is indicating the decline of the snow is a real threat. The Climate Council has just put out a report emphasising this, based on 200 source documents. It's saying, basically, that there's been a massively increasing trend to rely on artificial snow as the seasons have shortened over the past 25 years. We in our region were very offended by the offhand way in which the Minister for the Environment and Energy made a joke of this in the other chamber. It didn't go down well, because so many jobs and so much of our economy in the high country depend on the skiing industry.

I call on the government to take this petition that these wonderful kids and members of my community have raised out of real concern for the future of our region. The coastline and their own future in so many ways are affected by this grave threat, which is the gravest threat that confronts Australia as one of the driest continents on the planet. I urge the government to take that seriously. We need to see more action on the National Energy Guarantee—we don't know what the details of that are—and we need to see a more aggressive commitment to renewable energy.