Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right now, thousands of people in my home state of Victoria are experiencing the devastating impacts of flooding. Major flooding is occurring along the Murray River at Echuca Moama, Torrumbarry and Barham, with other towns along the river bracing for the coming days. Local communities are banding together, with people volunteering around the clock, and I salute their efforts. They're working together, rescuing people and animals, and protecting lives, homes and livelihoods. Just last week, my local community in the City of Maribyrnong was inundated with water. Areas near the Maribyrnong and the Werribee rivers were evacuated, and emergency services had to use boats to rescue people less than 10 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD. The Maribyrnong River flooding was undoubtedly made worse by the Flemington Racecourse flood wall, rammed through 15 years ago, despite the hard-fought campaigning of my local community.

But the climate crisis is the big story here. Thousands of Victorians are experiencing its implications firsthand. This increase in the rate and the extent of disasters is occurring with only one degree of warming, and we are headed for two or even three! Major storms and rain events are putting people's lives in danger, threatening homes, damaging our coastline and impacting our ability to grow food. And Labor and the Liberals are making the flooding worse by continuing to fund coal and gas expansion. They are risking our future for the sake of their donors. There are 114 new coal and gas mines being planned, for heaven's sake! Not one of these new coal and gas mines can go ahead; we have to phase out coal and gas by 2030. If we don't, more extreme weather events and more severe and devastating floods more often will become the new reality for millions of people across the globe.