STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia—Manager of Australian Greens Business in the Senate) (13:36): I rise today to speak of the horrible situation that has unfolded in Nepal over the last two weeks. We know that the death toll is currently at over 1,400, and there are still over 5½ thousand people missing and 65,000 people directly affected, including 22,000 children.

Roads and bridges have been damaged, and livelihoods are gone. So many communities have been cut off by this disaster. Not only is the rebuild going to be horrific and hard and treacherous; all of this is hindering what is most urgent right now, which still is the rescue mission.

These floods were triggered when the glacier in the Himalayas collapsed due to unprecedented levels of warming in the region. I think we really need to take stock of that. For years, scientists have been telling us that, as the globe warms—as global warming takes hold—and the climate crisis gets worse, these types of disasters and catastrophes will become more intense and more frequent.

The saddest part about all of this is that these types of disasters fall at the feet of the world's most vulnerable—the poorest in the world. Nepal is a country that has contributed very little to the pollution that is driving this crisis, but countries like Australia should be and can be doing more. We export a lot of the world's fossil fuels.

We're the third largest exporter of the pollution that is driving this crisis. We now must take heed and do something about it. (Time expired)