David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Former Chief of the Australian Defence Force Admiral Chris Barrie joined me and other parliamentarians this morning, calling on the Australian government to release a declassified version of the ONI climate risk assessment. He said this morning, 'We are not getting an open and transparent conversation about the big issues of risk.' He said that the Labor Party has been 'dragging their heels' on releasing the ONI climate risk assessment. I and Senator Shoebridge moved two separate motions which were voted down by the major parties.

Australians have a right to know about the type and scale of the security threat being posed by climate change. We are facing catastrophic damage to critical infrastructure, strained Defence Force capacity and increased political instability in our region. These threats are real, and they are terrifying. Our most significant ally, the United States, has released a similar report for the past couple of years. Why shouldn't we? We have a Labor government that committed to doing one, and now they're happy to keep it in secret and keep Australians in the dark about what this advice is. At the same time, they don't want further inquiry into something like the Middle Arm development, which we know will unlock huge fossil fuel deposits. As a crossbench, we will continue to push the government on this. They talk a big game. We're not seeing that being delivered. To continue to go down this path is indeed negligent. We know enough, and we want to know more so we can hold the government to account.