John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Friday, 18 January 2013, was the hottest day in Sydney's recorded history. For the first time the temperature reached 45.8 degrees centigrade. On that Friday, in Hobart, the capital of this country's most temperate state, a place more than 1,000 kilometres south of Sydney, the temperature climbed to 41.8 degrees centigrade. Indeed, on that Friday, maximum temperature records were broken at 44 weather stations across the country. Friday, 18 January 2013, was the culmination of the most sustained and extensive heatwave in Australian history, the crescendo to a week where the average daily temperature across the country exceeded 39 degrees centigrade.

Extreme weather events such as last summer's record-breaking heatwave cannot be ignored. They are not merely aberrations or anomalies that can be written off as the consequence of living on a volatile continent. Extreme events are exacerbated by the fact that our climate is warming. Tonight I want to draw attention to the latest scientific evidence for climate change. I do this to reiterate my support for and the importance of action on climate change.

In April this year the Climate Commission released a comprehensive assessment of the last peer reviewed science on climate change. The report, Extreme weather, was produced not by amateurs working on the home computer in the spare room, or scientific mercenaries whose opinions can be bought for the price of a seat in a corporate boardroom, rather the report was compiled by the nation's top climate scientists and was endorsed by the country's most prestigious and trusted scientific organisations—the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. The report's findings were startling: our climate continues to warm. Since 1910 Australia's average temperature has risen by 0.9 degrees centigrade. Since 1960 the annual number of record hot days has doubled while the number of record cold days has decreased. Today, record hot days in Australia are now three times more frequent than record cold days. The hottest month in Australia since records were kept occurred in January of this year. From 2 to 8 January 2013 the nation's average maximum temperature exceeded 39 degrees centigrade. Over the last century there have only been 21 days of this magnitude, and eight of those days occurred last summer.

The latest research suggests that the global climate system has now shifted to one that is warmer and moister than it was 50 years ago. Consequently climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events—droughts, heatwaves, floods. The report prepared by the Climate Commission points out that extreme weather events are in themselves nothing new, however, climate change is influencing these events and record-breaking weather is becoming more common around the world. Severe weather events impact adversely on Australian communities and on our economy. They threaten our water security, our agricultural production and public health.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events in the country's north as higher sea surface temperatures increase evaporation, atmospheric moisture and thus rainfall. I would not have to tell a Queensland senator such as yourself, Mr President, about events in our home state. At the same time climate change is decreasing the amount of rainfall in our southern regions. This has clear impacts on our agricultural production. For example, during 2002-03 drought was estimated to have reduced Australia's agricultural output by 26 per cent.

Climate change is also increasing the conditions that produce bushfires. To be fair bushfires are caused by a complex mix of social and environmental factors. There is no simple causal relationship between climate change and bushfires, but the change in Australia's climate is increasing the risk of bushfires in this country. As the Climate Commission report simply states:

Daily weather conditions play a strong role in the outbreak of bushfires. Very hot, dry and windy days create very high bushfire risk. Climate change is increasing the frequency of very hot days.

We know that bushfires exact a terrible human and financial cost. Following the Black Saturday fires in Victoria in February 2009 the fire service introduced a new category of 'catastrophic' to its existing fire-danger rating system. This illustrates the nature of the conditions our fire services now face.

Arguably less dramatic but just as threatening to public health are heatwaves. Research at the national hazards research centre at Macquarie University argues that heatwaves represent the most significant natural hazard in terms of loss of life in Australia. The centre estimates that between 1803 and 1992 there were 4,287 fatalities directly attributable to heatwaves. The risk to public health will only become more severe as the number and intensity of heatwaves increases and as our population continues to age.

The impact of climate change in Australia is clear. The evidence is undeniable. Of course, Australia, as we all appreciate, is not alone in facing the risks of a warming planet, and I intend to speak further about those matters tomorrow evening.

Senate adjourned at 23:36