MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (16:06): Obviously, scientists will take time to look at exactly what happened in Nepal, and we should not get ahead of them, but we do know that there are tipping points, and I fear that we are starting to see some of these tipping points in the news. Just as climate scientists are warning us about this future that we are beginning to live, the Albanese government is going down a different path.

They are continuing to approve extensions of projects at an extraordinary scale, at a time when we know that we have more than enough for the transition and when the International Energy Agency and others have been very clear that, if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we cannot continue to expand the coal and gas industry. We should use what we have for the transition and get serious about that transition, doing it in a way that actually improves the lives of Australians, that reduces energy prices, that increases resilience in communities, that looks at both mitigation but also as adaptation.

Adaptation is something that is sorely missing in terms of focus from both of the major parties. It's no wonder that the Albanese Labor government continues to hide the Office of National Intelligence's climate and security risk assessment. They don't want anyone to know just how bad their assessment is for the Pacific, for our neighbours and for our region, and what that will mean when we start to see cascading climate fuelled disasters and just how hard it is going to be to keep pace with that.

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