David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

If the children and young people who come to visit this parliament to watch what happens only knew how their future was being sold here, they'd be horrified. In a world where the changed climate is likely to have the most significant impact on the lives of young people, the calculated destruction of a liveable future brings shame to every person in this place who is involved in it. And you can't say you didn't know. Their future is in the balance, and you're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AUKUS instead of investing in a safe climate and giving everyone a home. Do you know what won't help young people when their communities are facing devastating floods and fires? Do you know what doesn't build local resilience and help people survive when the climate crisis turns up in their local hood? I'll tell you what: nuclear submarines. The government know that climate change is the biggest threat to the security of this country, and in typical fashion for Labor, they are trying to hide the fact. They commissioned a report on it through the Office of National Intelligence—reassured the media and the public how seriously they were taking it. Then, when the report came back, they hid it under a rock. Apparently, the national security impacts of climate change are too scary for the public to even know about—and that should terrify us all. What are they hiding?

In an attempt to curry favour, they gave some independent MPs a confidential briefing on the report, and then they swore them to secrecy—another classic Labor strategy of gagging your critics. The thing is, from flooded communities across Brisbane to the Northern Rivers in my home state of New South Wales to the fires burning near Ballarat, people can see the truth about the climate crisis. We can see the impacts of massive droughts, unseasonal cyclones and catastrophic rainfall in our country. We can see the truth of what the climate crisis is doing to our region and, fundamentally, to our national security. Our Pacific neighbours are going under water. Our region is going to be dramatically destabilised if we don't deal with climate change as coastal cities are inundated and food security is ravaged. Now, we can either pretend that none of this is happening, or we can get serious about climate action, keep coal and gas in the ground and support efforts for climate resilience in our country and our neighbourhood. What I can say is that when climate change seriously hits the fan we won't all fit on a handful of near-mythical AUKUS nuclear submarines.