STATEMENTS

Senator THORPE (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (10:45): The floods that happened in Nepal and Tibet were absolutely devastating. The scenes that the world saw are apocalyptic and can only be described as everyone's worst nightmare. My thoughts are with all those that have lost loved ones or still don't know what happened to them.

I can only imagine the pain you must be going through and want you to know that we are with you, we feel you and we hurt with you. The world is thinking of Nepal, and support for the rescue and clean-up efforts is being sent, as it should be. Sadly, we know much less about the impact the flood has had on Tibet, though it is likely just as catastrophic, possibly even more so, due to China not releasing information or allowing support in.

Independent international aid groups and journalists are prevented from entering Tibet, and I'm sure this is only just aggravating the situation. My thoughts are with the communities in Tibet and the Tibetans all over the world who fear for the lives of their loved ones but remain in uncertainty, not knowing when there will ever be certainty. Sadly, I'm certain this will not be the only incident of this kind.

We are headed for a world where these catastrophes will become more and more common—and it affects all of us. The government says now is not the time to talk about climate change, but actually now is exactly the time. We have no time to lose, or there will be more lives lost, more regularly.

Scientists have said that increased temperatures have led to glacier melting, which resulted in the huge volumes of water that we saw last week. With global heating, mountainous areas are at risk of further glacial lake outburst floods and erratic rainfall, which in turn will increase flood and landslide risks. Just last week, a landmark UN report was released which clearly stated the world will overshoot the 1.5 degrees climate target within the next few years—and this government has been mostly silent about it.

In fact, no-one speaks about caring for country any more. It's like the world has reached a point where it's in the too-hard basket, and so it's easier that we just ignore there is a problem at all. But we know that, if we look after country, country will look after us.

We see the Labor government supporting more gas in the Beetaloo basin, where we know that's going to have devastating effects on not only the land and the water but the people themselves, where people will be forced to drink poisonous water—where you could light the water on fire—from fracking. And we have Minister Watt standing up getting his selfies, proud of the climate bombs he approves.

It's the same with Murujuga, and the list goes on and on. We must act on global heating. I see a lot of babies around this parliament today.

It's a special day for those babies. What decisions get made in this place will affect their lives and their children's lives. That's how we as Aboriginal people think.

We're here to serve our people of tomorrow. But the people in here don't give a damn about the people of tomorrow. All you care about is raping and pillaging land and water, which will ultimately kill us all off.

We have to act and do everything that we can with everything that we have so that these climate catastrophes don't happen. We must phase out all fossil fuels as soon as possible and stop the delusional reliance on coal and gas. The people who have lost their lives must not have died in vain.