Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Boswell has just demonstrated as the lead speaker on this issue for the coalition that he does not understand what the government and what the world face with climate change. This is a historic day because it is a victory for science, it is a victory for common sense, it is a victory for the environment and, more important than anything else, it is a victory for future generations. That is what the victory is today. And it is a defeat for deniers like Senator Boswell. But at least Senator Boswell does not hide the fact that he does not think there is a problem with the climate. It is a defeat for the deniers, it is a defeat for the sceptics and it is a defeat for the political opportunists in the coalition.

This is the right thing to do for this country and the right thing to do for the world. It is socially, environmentally and economically responsible. The science is clear and the impacts of climate change are clearly visible. As stated by the CSIRO:

Southern and eastern Australia’s water supply reliability is expected to decline as a result of reduced rainfall and increased evaporation …

Development and population growth in Australia’s coastal regions will exacerbate the risks from sea-level rise and increase the likely severity and frequency of coastal flooding.

Significant losses of unique Australian animal and plant species are expected to occur in sites such as the Great Barrier Reef …

The risks to infrastructure include the failure of urban drainage and sewerage systems, more blackouts, transport disruption, and greater building damage—

These are all going to be the result of climate change.

Heatwaves, storms and floods are likely to have a direct impact on the health of Australians …

Moderate warming in the absence of rainfall declines can be beneficial to some agricultural crops … However, these positive effects can be offset by changes in temperature, rainfall, pests, and the availability of nutrients.

This is not the Labor Party saying these things, this is the pre-eminent scientific body in Australia—the CSIRO.

Scientists around the world agree. The only people who do not agree in this place are the coalition. Some of them know better, but are taking the short-term political approach on this issue. I would rather listen to the CSIRO than to Senator Boswell who tells us he goes out on his yacht off Brisbane in Queensland and he cannot see any rise in sea levels. That is the level of the scientific analysis of the coalition.

You see, this is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do for the country. As the CSIRO says, there are problems with nutrient deficiency. One of the hearings that I was involved in recently was an inquiry into koalas. What do the scientists say about koalas in relation to global warming? They say that the chemical nature of the food that koalas eat—that is, eucalyptus leaves—is changing because of global warming. The nutrients are being diminished, the chemical composition is changing and koalas are suffering because they cannot get nutrition from these eucalypt leaves. That is just one of the many examples of problems with global warming.

The hypocrisy of the coalition knows absolutely no bounds. Let me remind those opposite of what their former leader John Howard said:

A re-elected Coalition government will establish the world's most comprehensive emissions trading scheme in Australia, commencing no later than 2012. The scheme will be the primary mechanism for reducing Australia's emissions …

That is what John Howard said. You know it is the right thing to do. You should stop your hypocrisy and you should act in the national interest. Hypocrisy is ruling the national interest— (Time expired)