Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens to speak about the bushfire and climate emergency that our nation is facing. We share the sentiments that have been expressed already by the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and we too express our deepest sorrow and grief at the lives lost, the homes lost and the habitat lost from these catastrophic bushfires.

These are truly heartbreaking scenes. We are so grateful to the women and men putting their lives on the line to contain these unprecedented fires, and all the people supporting them right now; our volunteer firefighters, our professional firefighters and all of our emergency service personnel are heroes.

On the latest updates, tragically, three people have died and over 150 structures and homes have been lost. There are still 47 fires burning in my home state of Queensland and a state of emergency has been declared in 42-odd local government areas. There are at least 60 fires burning in New South Wales, and the Premier there has also declared a bushfire emergency. Indeed, New South Wales fire authorities have issued their first-ever catastrophic warning. What is unfolding is a direct threat to human lives, and we extend our deep gratitude to all of those working around the clock to keep people safe.

What is even more scary is the context in which these fires are happening. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service's Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has said that above-normal temperatures and below-average rainfall will continue to dominate the coming months. He said:

We have got the worst of our fire season still ahead of us. We're not even in summer yet.

It's truly terrifying to think that we haven't even entered the traditional bushfire season yet. Of course, our bushfire season is now fundamentally altered. Our bushfire season has extended to become almost an all-year-round threat. For the first time, fires are raging in both the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time. The days of Australian firefighters helping out in California in our winter and vice versa are likely to be over.

We cannot say we weren't informed that this was going to happen. In 2006 a report was handed to the Howard government by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology that fire and extreme fire-rating days would increase significantly by 2020. We're already in that future. They told us that the fire season would extend and that the window for crucial prescribed burning would narrow. What Australian climate scientists predicted in 2006 has come to pass, and governments have had every opportunity to act and have failed.

The question for us is whether this parliament will continue to fail those communities. Australia's greenhouse gas pollution right now is the highest on record. The mining and burning of coal and methane emissions from gas extraction continue to rise. The complete lack of climate policy in this country is simply pouring fuel on these fires, making them more likely and more intense. We owe it to our communities to rapidly transition to a renewable energy economy and unlock the thousands of new jobs in those communities.

Thoughts and prayers are not enough to protect the Australian community from future megafires. We need science. We need action from government to rapidly drive down Australia's pollution and, in the process, create those tens of thousands of jobs across the country and keep our communities safe from drier, harsher conditions that are unfolding before our very eyes. This parliament should be doing everything within our power to minimise the risk of losing human life, property and habitat, and that means doing everything we can to stop a climate breakdown. If we in this parliament don't commit to doing this then we'll be back here delivering another statement on another tragic national disaster, with shorter and shorter gaps in between.

The Australian Greens do not want statements like this to become frequent and regular. We want to see communities right across the country be safe from harm, and we commit to continuing to work for just that.