Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

One more would have helped. On the issue of displaced people in our region, Senator Macdonald, since you have queried my comments: can you imagine the politics of immigration and border protection with a quarter of a million people on the move? These are credible estimates. They come from people who study these things for a living—from people inside the US defence community and the United Nations. It is not possible to adapt gracefully to mass movement of people on that kind of scale.

Colleagues, there is still time—and the Senate vote earlier this afternoon has proven that the Senate's reputation as a house of second thoughts is well grounded. The smartest thing we could do today would be to leave the Climate Change Authority in place so that it can continue to provide the advice that we need on the mitigation options, on the adaptation strategies and on ways that our country and our region can survive in a world threatened by the very serious life or death impacts of global warming.