Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Climate risks will affect the economy through several channels. Hotter temperatures and more extreme weather will disrupt businesses, damage property and lower productivity. Unemployment could be persistently higher if people are unable or unwilling to live in a region that has suffered from extreme weather and related job losses.

These are not the words of a woke activist. These are the words of Michele Bullock, the governor of our Reserve Bank, the authority charged with ensuring the sustainable growth of our economy. In the past few weeks alone, we've seen heatwaves, floods and hurricanes across the globe, loss of Antarctic sea ice and warnings about the risk of devastating fires in this Australian summer. Last week, the IMF reported that Australia subsidises our fossil fuel industries by $65 billion every year. The government needs to listen to the RBA governor. The government needs to listen to our business communities and to the warning of its own Intergenerational report. Our economy is already being battered by climate change. Rather than subsidising fossil fuel industries, we need to hold them to account for the super profits that they reap, for the species that they render extinct and for the damage that they cause. Our health, our environment and our economy depend on it.