Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The decision for a couple to have children is normally personal and private. However, last night, the national broadcaster put to air comments of a young lady who was saying that she was too scared to bring children into this world because of climate anxiety. Sadly, this is what hysteria, alarmism, propaganda and misinformation has brought about. The fact is that a child born today is 100 times safer from extreme weather than their grandparents were. And this trend continues: last year was the safest year in human history in terms of extreme weather events, and a child born this year will enjoy a life expectancy 25 years longer than that of their grandparents.

While we worry about the coronavirus, remember that our great-grandparents survived World War I and lived through the Spanish flu, which killed between 50 million and 100 million people—about three to six per cent of the world's population. They then survived the horrors of the Great Depression and World War II. And, with the very real threat of nuclear war, our parents and grandparents maintained their optimism and decided to have children; otherwise none of us would be here today. The reality is that a child born today will inherit a world that is safer and more prosperous than ever before—and, given the freedom and opportunity, they will make it even better.