MATTERS OF URGENCY › Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (16:20): I also rise to address the motion moved by Senator McKim. Australians deserve action on climate change. It was the Albanese government that commissioned Australia's first-ever comprehensive national climate risk assessment, and it was our government that released the first pass assessment in March 2024. That report identified 56 nationally significant climate risks and began a conversation about how we continue to prepare our communities, the economy and our environment for the future. The final stage of this assessment and its accompanying national adaptation plan is well advanced. This work has involved extensive public consultation, with more than 180 submissions from across government, industry, the community and First Nations groups, and it is currently before the cabinet and subject to the appropriate and customary confidential cabinet processes. As part of the assessment, 11 priority risks have been identified, covering the natural environment, food and agriculture, infrastructure, regional communities, health, supply chains and our economy. It is serious work of government, and we are getting on with it. We take the climate crisis seriously because Australians are already living with more frequent and severe weather events. Every fraction of a degree of warming makes these impacts worse. That is why we have legislated ambitious but achievable emissions reduction targets of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050, and we are on track to meet them. Contrast that with what's happening in the Liberal and National parties. Just last week, Liberal National Party of Queensland members voted to call on their federal party to abandon its commitment to net zero. Similar motions have passed in the Western Australian and the South Australian Liberal branches. Senior coalition figures like Andrew Hastie and Barnaby Joyce are openly campaigning to scrap net zero altogether. In WA we've seen public feuds between Andrew Hastie and state Liberal leader Basil Zempilas after Hastie's own members in the division of Canning pushed a motion— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Whiteaker, can I remind you to refer to members of the other chamber by their correct titles. Senator WHITEAKER: The member for Canning—to ditch net zero. We know, after crushing election defeats, that the coalition have failed to resonate with women, young people and voters in cities and much of metropolitan Australia. But, instead of uniting around modern policies on climate action, the Liberal Party and the National Party are instead fighting amongst themselves. While the coalition is reviewing its commitment to net zero and the Greens are grandstanding with motions and stunts, Labor is taking real action on climate change: strengthening the safeguard mechanism, working towards net zero, strengthening our environmental laws and, soon, finalising our first national climate risk assessment and adaptation plan to make our country more resilient. Our commitment to climate change doesn't end there; it extends to our oceans and our reefs. We know climate change is the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide, including the Great Barrier Reef. That is why Australia is doing more than ever under our government to manage and protect the reef's outstanding universal value. Together with the Queensland government, we are investing over $5 billion through to 2030 improve water quality, control crown-of-thorns starfish, reduce marine debris and protect marine life. We're on track to deliver all of our UNESCO commitments on water quality, sustainable fisheries and climate action. All of these efforts—emissions reduction, adaptation planning and marine protection—are about safeguarding Australia's future. They're about protecting communities, industries and ecosystems from the climate impacts that we know are being felt. So when this motion calls on the government to demonstrate that its climate response will protect reefs, communities and economies, the answer is clear: we are. Through unprecedented investment and serious policy work by the government and the cabinet, we are acting where others are simply delaying or grandstanding. We are building resilience while those opposite descend into division and while the Greens simply put— (Time expired)