Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a cold, fairly miserable, drizzly day in Canberra. It is the morning after the night before. What a disgraceful night it was last night in the main chamber, when we were in debate for the Safeguard Mechanism (Crediting) Amendment Bill. I reflected, as a first-term MP in the first ten months of my first term, on what it means to represent a community and the things that matter to them. In my community of Chisholm the environment really matters, and taking action on climate change really matters. I thought that everyone in this place stood for parliament so that they could do what was required in the best interests of this nation. Last night we saw a pretty childish display from those opposite.

I reflect very seriously on the fact that the IPCC released a report yesterday morning. I, like so many in my community and, I expect, in other communities across this country, was horrified to realise that time is running out to take meaningful action on climate. We put forward legislation in the House of Representatives that those opposite not only refused to support, but spent last night disrupting, delaying and making a mockery of. When history looks back to this moment in time, it will see those who treated action on climate as a joke and those who seriously tried to make a difference for the survival of this planet.

Every time I have a mobile office, climate change is raised as one of the most important issues in my community. I reflect back to the election campaign when my opponent, from the former government, refused to attend a climate change forum. For too long this issue has not been treated seriously by those opposite, and when given the opportunity to come together as a parliament, as parliaments across the world do, those opposite refused. It's actually a really normal thing to come together to take action on climate change in other places, but unfortunately not here. That is a real shame for our country, and it is a real stain on the history of their party.

It was a ridiculous, petty, petulant, entitled performance that we were treated to last night, and families across the country will have seen it. Perhaps I could plead to the better natures of those opposite to do better in the future, but if that's not enough—if appealing to their conscience is not enough—perhaps they will look to their electoral self-interest. Perhaps they will realise that the community has handed a mandate to our government to take action on the climate.

In my very first speech in this place I spoke of Pat and John, a lovely couple I met just near the Wattle Park shops in my electorate. They were so concerned about climate and integrity and the future that their grandchildren would inherit. Every time I go to an early childhood education place, I speak to children about the need to look after the environment; in fact, this is the issue they raise with me. The local ACF group in Chisholm; Baby Boomers for Climate Change Action in my electorate; Tomorrow Movement; Lighter Footprints; and school students—environmental captains in their schools—raise the importance of climate change action with me all the time. I know I'm not the only MP who gets asked these questions. I'm sure those opposite do too, and I really do wonder how they answer such questions.

Maya Angelou has a really fantastic quote that I think of often when I think of those opposite: 'When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.' I hope the people of Australia see what they're shown by those opposite: not just their failure to take action climate change but their turning what was an important moment for this nation and for energy policy into a joke by trying to shut down the debate in parliament, by trying to find the tactics to make sure we can't take this issue seriously as a country. It was a disgrace, and they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.