Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to contribute to the debate on this MPI today. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts into managing our coastal zone in a changing climate. In case people have the wrong idea, I note that this was indeed a bipartisan report, and the members of the opposition who participated in this inquiry are quite clearly signed up to the fact that climate change exists and is having a deleterious effect on our coastline. You may not have ascertained that from the comments by Senator Macdonald. The opposition members in this inquiry were Dr Mal Washer, the Hon. John Cobb, Ms Nola Marino, the Hon. Bruce Scott and Mr Jason Wood. I appreciate their contribution to this important report.

Comments are often made in the debate about climate change along the lines of ‘the climate of the world has always been changing’. Of course it has always been changing. We know there have been ice ages in the past. We know there were inland seas in Australia in the past. The difference now is that there are 22 million people living in Australia, and I do not think there were 22 million people living in Australia during the last ice age. The fact that there are some 22 million people living in Australia, 80 per cent of them close to the coast, means that the impact of climate change is going to be a lot different to what it was during the last ice age.

I am pleased to say not only that the Rudd Labor government acknowledge that climate change exists and is a problem for the population of Australia but that we have tackled the problem of climate change head-on. We have accepted the science of climate change. We have accepted the consensus that global warming does exist, that human activity is causing global warming and that global warming is deleterious. Therefore, we accept that human activity should be modified to ameliorate the impact of global warming. We have accepted the view that we need to act now or our climate will change and the population of Australia, 22 million of us, will suffer serious consequences. The government recognises the destruction that climate change will have on our country should we fail to act, and we have devised a plan to begin to reduce the severity of climate change and to maintain an environment that will support the kind of human activity that we need and want for the generations to come.

It is well known from the science that, as a nation, we are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, and the House of Representatives report referred to in this motion before the chamber goes substantially to that issue. The effects that climate change will have on our environment, our economy and our lifestyle will be serious. The health of our population, the security of our water and energy supplies and the impacts on our coastal communities will all be significant. The nation, and indeed the whole world, is treading somewhat uncharted waters here. No-one can be exactly sure of the extent of the impact that climate change will have on our future, but we need to be prepared to accept the fact that there will be change and we need to do something about it, and that is what the Rudd government is doing.

In our relatively short time in government, the government have already proven to be a driving force for international action on climate change. Of course, the first action of the government was ratifying the Kyoto protocol, and that was seen by the world as a positive step in our commitment to stabilising the concentration in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Additionally, the government have established a mandatory renewable energy target, implemented the Clean Energy Initiative, introduced energy efficiency measures and implemented a national water strategy. The government are taking lots of action now through a comprehensive plan of action to fight the war on climate change.

The matter before the chamber states that there is a disparity between the findings of the report of the House of Reps Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts and the government’s climate change policies. The report lists many recommendations but it is my view, having quickly looked at them today, that many of those recommendations are in fact already being addressed by the Department of Climate Change, by the Minister for Climate Change and Water and indeed by the government overall. We are heading in the right direction.

But government action to combat climate change has not come easily. As we have seen again in this debate just now, in government we continually come up against that bunch of climate change deniers—the sceptics in opposition who, with their usual ‘head in the sand’ attitude, hope that Australia will be fine and prefer to do nothing. Fortunately for Australia, the sceptics have not had it all their own way in the opposition party room, as we understand it. I know all of us in the chamber are awaiting with interest the progress of the CPRS legislation through this chamber in the next sitting.

The Rudd government, I am pleased to say, has invested heavily in all aspects of dealing with climate change, coastal zones included, and we are actively fighting the battle against climate change. We are acting to reduce carbon pollution and secure Australia’s future prosperity. We have invested in clean energy programs, we are supporting businesses to take action against climate change and we are supporting households to take action. We have acted to monitor the nation’s carbon emissions levels with good, well funded science. As part of that, the government has dedicated a total of more than $15 billion to implementing a comprehensive response to climate change. The government’s climate change strategy provides the long-term framework and confidence for our nation to prosper in the shadow of climate change.

A report released earlier this year by Professor Will Steffen from the ANU Climate Change Institute found that our climate system appears to be changing faster than originally thought likely. That report, Climate change 2009: faster change and more serious risks, also found that the need for an effective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is urgent to avoid the risk of crossing dangerous thresholds in the climate system. The report focused on rapidly changing areas of science of importance to Australia, such as the contribution of melting ice to sea level rise, acidification of the oceans and changing water availability. That report is like so many other scientific reports that are coming out now—and I think the CSIRO was here during the week. Indeed, a number of scientists have been here in Parliament House during the week, and overwhelmingly the science that they are presenting to senators and members demonstrates and reaffirms the fact that climate change is a reality and that human activity is contributing to it.

All of those reports also give us in the government the impetus to continue to act as quickly as possible to address this issue. The government has funded scientific endeavour in the Australian Climate Change Science Program to the tune of $31.2 million over four years. That will enable us to develop an even better understanding of the impacts of climate change and to develop stronger action plans to counter the effects. We have also invested $387.7 million over five years to fund infrastructure critical for climate change science.

I think it is slightly galling that this matter for discussion, which is of course critical of the government, was put up by the Greens. It is the kind of matter they usually put up when it is their turn to have an MPI, but we cannot let this debate pass without acknowledging that the Greens voted with the opposition when the CPRS legislation was before the chamber previously. It is hypocritical of them to come here and criticise the government when in fact they joined with the opposition to vote down that legislation. They voted with the opposition to prevent the first extremely important steps that the nation should take—a major initiative and an important initiative that the government are attempting to get underway so that we can begin to seriously address the effects of climate change in this nation.