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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-05-14 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Climate Change

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:05): The majority of the population, the vast majority of scientists and, I would venture to say, almost every member of this parliament understand the importance of climate change, understand that it is happening, understand that it is caused by humans and understand that it needs to be addressed or it will cause irreparable harm to the planet and to our way of life.

That consensus first emerged indisputably around 1990 with the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released by the UN, which demonstrated a broad range of scientific evidence that this was occurring. Yet we have seen all too little action, largely, I would say, because we have had too many conservative politicians, otherwise known as 'coal fondlers', who have been vigorously in denial of its occurrence and vigorously unwilling to do anything about it.

Let's just think about what has happened recently, even though we have known indisputably about climate change since at least 1990. As we know, last summer was the hottest on record in Australia. Across our nation, 200 temperature records were broken. Since 2001, across the planet 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred. For the last 30 years, every month has been hotter than the average temperature of the planet in the 20th century.

The last time there was a month that was not hotter than the average was in February 1985. It is not those averages that actually matter—they are indicators—but the extreme events: when you shift the bell curve of the frequency of the very high temperatures, as the temperature moves across generally you will get more and they will be hotter. You need only talk to the residents of Port Augusta about having temperatures of nearly 50° in January to understand the very real impact of extreme events.

The risk we see here is that we take too long to take these issues seriously. Last week, the UN came out with another intergovernmental panel report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and it is essential not only that we take it as seriously, as we have now taken climate change, but that we do something before it is too late.

One million species across the planet are threatened. The biomass of native animals has dropped 82 per cent in recorded history. Right now, 40 per cent of our amphibian species are on the endangered list. Thirty-three per cent of marine mammals are threatened. Thirty per cent of re-forming coral species are threatened. Seventy-five per cent of our land and two-thirds of our marine environment have been significantly affected by humans. One-third of our land, and 75 per cent of fresh water, is devoted to crops and livestock. We have had a massive impact on this planet and it is showing the strain.

Turn your mind very briefly to the benefits we get: healthy fisheries from which we can feed our people, pollination services, healthy topsoils in order to grow the food that we require, fresh water for ourselves—a very precious commodity under threat—and sea level rises. Of course, if we do not have the carbon sequestration syncs provided by ecosystems, particularly the ocean, then we will see an increase of 4°. We will see one day in eight in South Australia being a heatwave. I do not think that anyone thinks we can survive at all in those conditions, let alone the way we do now.

So what do we need? We need politicians to take this seriously, and this government is not the government to do that. This government is the one that is led by the coal fondlers in Canberra—the climate deniers, the people who think that carbon is funny. The biggest challenge—the reason we are suffering from biodiversity collapse—is, number one, climate change. This government has cut $11 million out of the department. Number two is land use.

What is this government doing with its Natural Resources Management Act? It is removing nature from it. What is it doing to the department that cares about nature? It is hacking into the jobs. What about water use, another threat to biodiversity? Well, just look at the River Murray and the absolute disgrace of the way Canberra led this government by the nose into not extending the royal commission and into doing a dodgy deal with interstate irrigators.

What have this government done about the overexploitation of species? They have come in saying they are going to do something awful to marine parks but are being silent about exactly what. Pollution is another threat hacking into the EPA budget. What we need is a government that is prepared to listen to experts and listen to young people because they have never known a normal climate and they will be looking to all leaders to do something about this before it is too late.

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