STATEMENTS

Senator WATERS (Queensland—Leader of the Australian Greens) (10:16): On behalf of the Australian Greens, we send our love and our solidarity to the Nepalese community and everyone impacted by the catastrophic flood disaster. We stand with communities across the Himalayas in their grief for this devastating loss. This is a disaster that is inexorably linked to the climate crisis.

Others have spoken to the scale of this disaster. More than 1,300 people are confirmed dead across Nepal and Tibet. More than 5,000 are still missing.

More than 50,000 have been driven from their homes. Those are the numbers. Behind each of those is a family, including Australian families—pilgrims coming home from Mount Kailash, trekkers, students, a serving member of the RAAF and families from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne who set off on the trip of a lifetime.

I cannot imagine the terror they felt as those floodwaters came rushing down. One Australian family has already had the news that I know many others are dreading. To Michael Keats's partner, his family and his friends and the whole Mollymook community: we're so deeply sorry for your loss.

To every family still waiting by the phone: we're holding on to hope with you, and we're grateful for every Australian found safe over the past fortnight. I want to thank the people doing the finding: the Nepal army and police, the guides, the porters and the villagers who were digging with their hands before official help arrived; Australia's disaster response team; the Queensland and New South Wales fire crews; the AFP identification and family liaison teams; and the DFAT consular staff who were the voice on the other end of the phone.

Thank you. I thank the government for moving quickly on aid and on people, and I urge it to keep going, because the need will outlast the news cycle. Australia knows climate disasters better than most nations, and our help should match the scale of this one.

To the Nepalese community in Australia and the families who've held vigils in Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne while their own relatives are unaccounted for: we see you and we grieve with you. Every condolence motion in this place carries a commitment to learn the lessons. Let me speak to them plainly.

Nepal's glaciers have lost a third of their ice in 30 years. The Himalaya is warming faster than the global average. The UN's own climate chief said last week that a warming climate driven by burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas is making tragedies like this one more likely.

It was not unpredicted, and, sadly, it very likely won't be the last time that we're standing here in this place offering condolences for this sort of climate disaster. There is an injustice at the heart of it. Nepal produces a 10th of one per cent of the world's emissions, and yet it is the people of Nepal who are pulling their neighbours out of the mud.

I know some will say that a condolence motion is not the time—I've heard that after every bushfire and every flood—but if when a glacier falls on a village is not the time, then when is? Scientists will take time to fully attribute this event, and they should, but Nepal's Foreign minister has spoken plainly about why this disaster happened, and we should too.

We honour the dead with what we do next. Nepal has written to the global loss and damage fund, asking for emergency help. Australia has put $50 million into that fund, and we should be the loudest voice backing Nepal's request.

This is an important start, but we owe it to all those affected to stop making the next disaster more likely—by keeping our coal in the ground and our gas in the ground here now. We can do it and we should do it. To Nepal: you've welcomed Australians into your mountains for generations.

You're not alone in this. We're with you today and we will be with you for the long road back.