Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026-2027
Mr MATT SMITH (Leichhardt) (16:13): I'm very proud to speak on this bill. Climate change, energy, the environment and water matter where I'm from, and there are lots of numbers here. Numbers are great.
Minister Bowen will update you on the numbers daily—on how many solar batteries are being installed and what that means for the environment and what that means for bringing down power bills. I don't want to argue the science, although some of those opposite will still have that argument. Arguing the science right now is a bit like arguing the existence of cats.
It exists. Deal with it. Move on.
The member from Wannon kept asking: What is the true cost? What is the true cost? What is the true cost?
The cost is Saibai. The cost is the cape. The cost is the turtles.
The cost is the reef. It's disgraceful. Climate change is an existential risk to my communities.
Minister Wilson stood on the shores of Saibai and looked out over Papua New Guinea, maybe three or four kays away. His feet got wet by the inundating tide. The bodies of the children and the elders of Masig wash out to sea as the tides inundate the cemetery.
This government invests in seawalls. It invests in resilience. It takes the time to go to the places where climate change is at its worst, where it is most critical, and that is the Far North.
This is not limited to the Torres Strait. We had two cyclones cross the coast this year within two weeks of each other. We were lucky.
For reasons that remain clear only to nature, Cyclone Narelle missed the community of Coen. Being a category 4, it would have caused death. This is what we're fighting against.
It's not about anything other than giving people the chance to live their lives on the country that they grew up in and to make sure that the species of fish that they catch is still there. There is a duck that heralds the change of seasons on the Torres Strait. The duck has not been seen for 20 years.
It is a victim of climate change. As part of my electorate, I have custody of some of the great natural wonders of the world: the Daintree Rainforest, overrun by pigs, and the Great Barrier Reef, under threat to the crown-of-thorns starfish, the drupella snail and climate change. We invest in local business and the tourism industry to get on top of these threats.
We make sure that the future and the jobs that are connected to the reef exist. There are 77,000 jobs under threat because the Queensland government wants to approve more coalmines and more coal fired power plants, which will put the World Heritage listing at risk. The World Heritage listing, which drives tourism to the area, which drives small business and which makes sure the people in the Far North have jobs, things to eat and places to go, provides all of our economic benefit, as does the reef and the Daintree.
Cape York is a truly spectacular area, almost as special as the Daintree and the reef. The sawfish is endangered. It's a truly unique species that people have never heard of and that some people will travel their entire lives to look at.
That's money. That's tourism. That's economic development.
While you want to turn climate change into an ideological battlefield, it's not. It's an economic outcome. It drives entire regions.
It drives entire cities. It is really important that we make sure that we're pulling our weight and that the resilience exists to keep our natural wonders, which people travel across the world to see. The reef is in great shape because of the actions of this government, because of the work on the riparian corridors, because of the work to shore up the run-off into the reef and because of the work that we're achieving in making sure— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 16:17 to 16:29 Mr MATT SMITH: Strap in for the best 43 seconds of the day!
This matters. As I outlined previously, it makes a real difference to the people and the places that I represent. Some things are bigger than us, and climate change is one of them.
It impacts our neighbours in the South Pacific, in the Torres Strait and the people on the cape. It impacts our tourism industry. It's something that has to be taken seriously.
It's something that needs an all-of-government, all-of-nation approach and response. Fighting over it is useless. This is people's lives and this is people's livelihoods.
I commend the bill to the House.