Bill Heffernan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr Chair, I am terribly sorry. Bangladesh is half the size of Cape York Peninsula and if the science is half right—it might be half wrong—it will have to find somewhere else to go because, by 2050, there could be 1.6 billion people on the planet displaced. I could go through that, only I do not have time.

Bangladesh is half the size of Cape York Peninsula and 160 million people live there. Fifty-four of their 57 rivers flow in out of India. India is mining those rivers. If the sea rises to half the level predicted by the scientists, by 2050, they are going to lose where they live. They are going to have to find somewhere else to live. The UN will not fix that. The UN are the largest, most corrupt bureaucracy on the planet—most definitely. I have been there and told them to their own face and they just sat there with a glum look. The UN will not fix this issue. People will make their own arrangements. And do you think we should lock up the capabilities of Cape York Peninsula and prevent any commercial agricultural production which will take some research and work? Do you think we should say to the Indigenous people up there, 'Look, mate, if you just get your photo taken on a spear for the next 50 years, that's a great commercial opportunity for tourism.'