Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Molan knows, probably better than anyone in this chamber, that the most important job of any government is to protect its citizens. This government has failed dismally with this summer's crisis. I'm very glad the Labor Party has brought before us today this discussion on the economic costs of climate inaction. It's not a discussion we often have, especially with this mob on the government side of the chamber. We tend to talk a lot about the impacts of climate inaction on our environment, ecosystems and communities but we very rarely talk about the impact on the economy.

Small businesses in the coastal regions of Victoria and New South Wales and on Kangaroo Island are reeling in the aftermath of these fires. It's not just small businesses in the directly affected regions; I had feedback in Tasmania, both on the east coast and the west coast, in the last week of January that people's businesses, bookings and sales of products had been impacted by these fires as well. It's okay for Senator Birmingham to stand up in question time today to say, 'We've just allocated $76 million to a tourism fund,' but the government have just been caught out spending $150 million on their own private slush fund—straight-up corruption. It is straight-up criminal activity promoting the government's own self-interests, their personal interests and their political interests. How do Australians feel about that? There's also another slush fund we've found out about. That is money we could be spending on our fire-affected communities.

I'm glad we're having this discussion about the economic costs of climate change. The crisis this summer is already predicted to exceed $100 billion in cost terms. Add to that the floods we've seen in recent days from extreme weather events—a new record broken in Sydney for the highest rainfall in a short period of time—the hailstorms here in Canberra and the health effects from smoke inhalation. This cost to the economy—to small businesses, to individuals, to our GDP, to our surplus; however you want to frame it up—is ultimately going to be catastrophic as well. I say to all those people out there who know climate deniers—I know some, especially in this chamber. One just spoke before he left. He said he 'doesn't like to listen to the evidence'—that is a quote directly from Q&A. I say to them: talk to them about the economic cost. A lot of Liberal voters understand economics, they understand business and they understand the costs. This is tangible to them. It is black and white. It's a thing we should talk about a lot more because the costs of inaction far outweigh the costs of action.