Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance and the Public Service (Senator Cormann) to a question without notice asked by Senator Hanson-Young today relating to climate change.

I rise to take note of the answers given to me by Senator Cormann in relation to my questions relating to Australia's position in the COP24. Nations right around the world are currently meeting to discuss how we work together across the globe to get serious action on global warming. We know that, overnight, Sir David Attenborough put a very, very strong call out to all of us as leaders in our communities and as parliamentarians—that we can't keep putting action on climate change to one side. He said that this is the biggest threat facing civilisation. These are the words of David Attenborough, backed up by the science of the IPCC. All of those who are meeting in Poland at the COP 24 are working extremely hard to ensure that we implement not just the Paris targets but that we do whatever it takes to make sure we can keep global temperature rises to 1½ degrees or below, because that's what the scientists are telling us we need to do.

Of course, back here at home we've heard from the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, today, absolutely blasting his colleagues here in Canberra for a total lack of leadership and also for an avid campaign to destroy not just his leadership but effective action on climate change. And why, you may ask, Mr President? Well, the former Prime Minister said it well:

There is a significant percentage of Coalition members who do not believe climate change is real.

Imagine: here we are, the Australian parliament. We have the government of the country, and a significant percentage of them don't even believe in science. They don't accept the science. Of course, these are the people who work every day to undermine real climate action in this country. They're prepared to roll Prime Minister after Prime Minister because they don't want any type of transition away from fossil fuels. This is not because they necessarily care that much about fossil fuels, but they are absolute madmen and denialists.

There is, of course, the added pressure, I would imagine, on some of those members in the coalition as to what their donors might think about a reasonable climate change policy—a policy that drove down emissions and transitioned away from coal and other fossil fuels. We know that individuals like Gina Rinehart, for example, like signing cheques to the National Party. She doesn't do that because she's just a nice person; it's because she wants them to throw roadblock after roadblock in the way of genuine and real action on climate change.

Then, of course, there is the current Prime Minister himself, who, famously, came into the House of Representatives with his pet rock—his lump of coal.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It wasn't a rock—it was a lump of coal.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was his lump of coal; his pet rock—his favourite piece of symbolism of where, apparently, the heart and soul of the coalition lies.

The former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has belled the cat. The reason he got kicked out of the job was not because of Newspoll and was not because of other policies: it was all because of climate change. The climate change deniers still rule the roost in the coalition. Those who don't believe in science and who would prefer to put their heads in the sand live in denial while the rest of the world is saying, 'We've got to get on with it, because otherwise the planet is going to fry.'

Question agreed to.