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

Firstly, Deputy President, congratulations on your appointment yesterday as Deputy President of the Senate. We're all human beings in this place. As hard as it might be for some of the general public to believe that, we are, and I just wanted to make a personal reflection to begin with and to say how positive, optimistic and happy I am to be coming back to the Senate and getting on with the job. I know many others in the chamber are feeling the same way—and so are the Australian people.

There are a lot of messages we could take away from this election and the result of the election and the change of government, but I think the most important one is that Australians have voted for doing politics differently in this country. They have voted for a more caring, a more considered, and a more collaborative and constructive parliament. I've got that everywhere I've gone, and, believe it or not, I've gone to a lot of places in the last month. I've driven 8,000 kilometres and seen a lot of the country and talked to lots of people, and I've even had some people say to me they really feel like they're living in a different country right now. I share that enthusiasm for change and for achieving great things in this 47th Parliament.

They've also voted for a more representative parliament. In the 2019 election we saw nearly one-quarter of Australians vote for third voices in this place: the Greens, Independents and other minor parties. That's jumped to nearly one-third of Australians now, following the last term of parliament, and it will continue to grow. Mark my words: it will continue to grow if this government and this Senate—this parliament—don't work constructively on facing the great challenges of our time, like tackling climate change and tackling the inequality crisis that we all know exists and urgently needs our attention. It will continue to grow.

I'm also happy to put on record today that I do believe that we are witnessing the continued decline and destruction of the two-party system in this country. I have no doubt that within two or three parliaments time—I won't be around in two or three parliaments time; I can assure you of that. Perhaps some in this chamber will be—we will see a much more representative parliament as more young people get to the polling booths and demand that we as decision-makers in this place listen to them about their concerns about their future.

To juxtapose those two things, about people wanting to see a more collaborative approach to politics, a more constructive approach, and a kinder parliament, let me say this: it's not kind for this parliament to delay further climate action. It's not kind of this parliament or this government to approve new fossil fuel projects that are only going to continue to pour petrol on the fire of climate change. It's not kind to ignore the public housing crisis in this country or the millions of Australians who need to get mental health and full dental care into Medicare. If we want to be a kinder, more collaborative and more representative parliament then we need to move away from the state capture of politics that we've seen in recent decades, and we need to represent the people that voted for us.

We'll be having a debate in this chamber very soon on a significant piece of legislation, the government's climate bill—let's just call it that. I haven't seen the full title of it yet—and there'll be a lot more time to talk about what an adequate target for climate action is and what a blueprint, a transition, to what real climate action looks like. I look forward to contributing to that debate, as I know many of my colleagues do, after campaigning so hard to get elected to this place. I congratulate all my new colleagues in this chamber and in the other place but also those of us who've been here for the last nine years, during the swamp years and the desert years, who've come in here every day and fought for climate action and for representation.

There's nothing kind about the pressures that climate change is adding to the costs of living in this country. Have no doubt: the climate crisis that we are in, which will only get worse if we don't act, is a cost-of-living crisis. Inaction on climate change is going to continue to build the cost-of-living crisis in this country. Last night on the TV I saw our new Prime Minister—and congratulations to Mr Anthony Albanese on his election as Prime Minister. He may not remember it, but I was on a panel with him three years ago at Splendour in the Grass, and I said to him, 'I hope you're our new Prime Minister in three years time, Albo, but you need to grow a spine on tackling Adani and stopping new coal and gas projects in this country.' He's there, and I'm glad about that. The next bit concerns me, because last night on TV he talked about the 'devastating economic impacts' of saying no to new coal and gas projects, the economic impacts of not continuing to ramp up fossil fuel production. Somehow that was going to cause economic pain. What about the pain that's caused by burning more fossil fuels and exporting more fossil fuels, adding to global warming?

Ironically the comments by the Prime Minister last night were followed up this morning by a new report from CSIRO that they've been working on for many years that shows that the costs of climate inaction will top $39 billion annually by 2050, complete with chronic hits to Australia's food supply chain. That devastates the economy. That qualifies as a devastating economic impact. Globally it's estimated that 75 billion tonnes of fertile soil and 12 million hectares of productive farmland capable of producing food for the world—20 million tonnes of grain—is lost to desertification and land degradation every year from climate impacts. So farmers are going to do it tougher. We know droughts and floods are part of the history of this country, but we know the science tells us that they're getting worse.

I think every farmer understands that they are custodians of their land and they need to live off that land—and they do a great job of feeding us. They know what climate change is and they understand the costs of climate change and the costs of inaction. Australian farms, it is estimated, are losing—and I asked questions about this at estimates earlier in the year—on average $30,000 per year due to the impacts of climate change. How's that for a cost-of-living crisis if you're a farmer? How do you feel if you're a farmer in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales who's lost your third crop in 18 months, thanks to flooding? Why do you think lettuces in this country were selling for around $11? Why do you think avocado prices have gone up? How's that for a cost-of-living crisis? What about insurance premiums that have been turbocharged by climate impacts? By the way, that's if you're lucky enough to be insured in some parts of this country now. As of 2020, if you lived in northern Australia, home and contents insurance was costing about 1.8 times more than it was in the south of Australia because of the off-the-charts weather events that we have witnessed in this country.

The climate crisis is a cost-of-living crisis, and the sooner we understand that the better off we will be. The sooner we act on that, the better off this nation and its people will be. I'd like to point out that this has all happened, the science tells us, on around one degree—some say 1.1 degree—of warming above pre-industrial levels. The target we're about to vote on in the climate legislation is a 43 per cent reduction of 2030 emissions based on 2005 levels. The science tells us that the ambition embedded in that will lead to a two-degree warming. If the rest of the world complies, this planet will warm by two degrees Celsius. That is a 100 per cent increase on what we've already seen in our system. If you want to talk about the three bleachings of the Great Barrier Reef in five years, including in a La Nina year; the loss of Tasmania's giant kelp forests and the devastating impacts that has had on our fisheries—the most productive and valuable fishery in the world, for example, our abalone fishery; the loss of sea grasses; droughts, hundreds and thousands of hectares of land burnt from fires—unprecedented fires in just about every state of this country; and floods, that's all happened on one degree of warming. Imagine a doubling of that?

I'm happy to say here on record that the Greens' 75 per cent emissions reduction target on 2030 levels that we took to the election puts us in line with the Paris agreement. That's still a 1.5 degree warming, still a 50 per cent increase on what we're seeing in the system now. That's achievable, that's a pragmatic stance by the Greens. We know we need to get it back to 350 parts per million to have any chance of reversing the kinds of climate impacts we've seen, even for 50 or 100 years time. So I just want to put on record my personal view that even a 75 per cent emissions reduction is still potentially catastrophic for this country and for the planet. But it's achievable if we all work together. Forty-three per cent: do you know what that is? That is surrender: 43 per cent is surrender. And as far as net zero by 2050: when we get to 2050—none of us will be here, by the way, in 2050; hopefully, we'll all still be alive, but, I tell you what, younger generations like the young people we saw out on the parliament lawns will be here, they'll be alive and they'll be inheriting it—what's the point of having net zero emissions by 2050 if the Barrier Reef as we've known it is dead? If it is gone? If our world is irrevocably changed, what's the point, when we can act now and save those volumes of carbon emissions going into the atmosphere and act on it immediately—do something meaningful? We can all do it.

I just want to finish by making a few personal thanks, because it would be wrong for me not to thank today some of the people in my own electorate in Tasmania as a Senate candidate. We had a great result in Tassie. Tasmanians, as they did for Senator McKim in 2019, the Greens saw a big swing to us in Tasmania, as we did, by the way, around the country. The Greens in Tassie achieved the highest Senate vote across the country, nearly 15.5 per cent, so over quota. I would like to thank, in particular, the candidates and I would like to thank all the people that voted for the Greens—all the thousands of supporters and volunteers who were out there on polling booths, who did all this amazing work because they cared about acting on climate change and they cared about tackling the inequality crisis. I would particularly like to thank my two Senate candidates, Vanessa Bleyer, who is based in Launceston, and Tabatha Badger, who is down in the south. They worked tirelessly to help and support me in my Senate campaign. I would also like to thank Cecily Rosol, our candidate in Bass, and Liz Johnstone, our candidate in Lyons. I thank Jade Darko, our candidate in Franklin; Janet Shelley, our candidate in Clark; and Dr Darren Briggs, our candidate in Braddon. There were lots of great people within the party, but special thanks should go also to Deb Rees, our party manager, who texted me yesterday and told me how happy she was to see me swearing in as a senator again. Thanks for everything you've done, Deb, we absolutely couldn't have done it without you. And of course, there are the other party organisers, Danny Carney, who I first started campaigning with back in 2004 when he was a 17-year-old student at university; Bridget Ferrier, Steve Wright, Nina Hamasaki and Ebony Campbell.

There were many, many other people that contributed in Tasmania and indeed right around the country. I wouldn't be standing here today without you and, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for backing us in. I pledge to you, as I'm sure my fellow party room colleagues will also pledge, that we will do everything we can—everything we can—in in this parliament, as we have done since the Greens were first elected into this place, to fight for climate action, to fight to tackle the inequality crisis and to fight for your future.