Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

Contrary to Senator Brandis's view that there are divergent views amongst the medical profession, he is quite wrong. There is an overwhelming consensus among scientists, particularly in the medical profession, in today's The Lancet. It is common that we are on track for four degrees of warming. That is going to have huge impacts on human health—catastrophic impacts on human health, actually. They are saying that you are going to see exactly what has already been going on getting much worse. So you will have extreme weather events. That leads to a massive loss of life, loss of infrastructure, waterborne disease, a lack of availability of fresh water, contaminated water and the disease consequences.

Plus, you are going to see extreme heat. It is not well-known in Australia that more people died as a result of extreme heat at the time of the fires in Victoria than actually died in the fires. In fact, there had to be a temporary morgue in Adelaide at the time for the number of people who died from heat exhaustion. Of course, that tends to be the sick and the elderly, and people who live in the poorest standard of accommodation because they do not have access to air conditioning. These people become disoriented and overwhelmed; heat exhaustion may make other conditions they have worse. As a result, they are dying.

We are also seeing the spread of diseases borne by vectors like mosquitoes. In Australia, we already have Queensland subject to dengue fever. We are now going to see an increase in the area which is vulnerable to dengue fever as a result of global warming. Not only that: The Lancet points out there are huge opportunities for us, in a public health perspective, in addressing global warming. It is a win-win, because if you change or redesign your cities so that there is more walking, there is more cycling, more opportunities to access local food, better diets, then you are going to get healthier people. We are already suffering as a result of overweight, obesity and things like diabetes and so on. If you actually redesign your cities for healthier living you are going to have a public health benefit.

But also I come to the point of air pollution. Air pollution, particularly from coal-fired generators, is leading to particulate matter, leading to massive respiratory illness. And it is extraordinary that we have a situation where we have the government running around with a commissioner for wind farms and not actually dealing with the fact that people are dying as a result of pollution from coal fired generators and coal mines. So, you end up in a place like Morwell, for example, where you have demonstrated health issues as a result of coal, yet we have imaginary behaviour going on here, with the government rewarding and putting in place a commissioner for wind farms. It is a ludicrous proposition that is making a fool of us in global terms. And we are wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on more studies on wind farm sickness and no studies on four degrees of global warming and what that is going to do for public health and what it means in terms of rostering public health professionals to be available at times of extreme weather events, particularly in Australia, particularly in the summer.

This is a ridiculous position we have go ourselves in, and it is because the Abbott government is anti-science, anti action on global warming and a wholly owned subsidiary of the coal industry. For Minister Brandis to try to suggest that the medical profession is split on this is completely wrong. The medical profession is not split on it. The scientists are not split on it. Senator Brandis today was parroting, straight out of Peabody Energy and Burson-Marsteller's PR document. Peabody Energy, globalCOAL, paid Burson-Marsteller to come up with the lines that would justify coal. They have been spread throughout the world, and every time you hear an Abbott government minister talk about energy poverty, read for that Burson-Marsteller; read for it Peabody Coal. It is pathetic—wholly owned subsidiary of the coal industry and enemy of public health; that is the Abbott government.

Question agreed to.