MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator HODGINS-MAY (Victoria) (16:18): My heart goes out to everyone in Nepal and Tibet who has lost a loved one, a livelihood or a home and to those still desperately waiting for news. I lost my mum in the 2009 tsunami, and I know something of the grief that a disaster that arrives suddenly and changes everything can bring. My heart breaks for every single family experiencing that grief today.

But, as we mourn them, we owe it to them to be honest. We need to be honest about what is causing these disasters and what is making them more and more devastating. There is nothing natural about fossil-fuel-driven climate change melting glaciers, destabilising the Himalayas and making floods and landslides more dangerous.

The cruellest part of all is that the people living through this crisis contributed the least to it. Nepal has contributed almost nothing to the emissions driving global warming, yet the Nepalese are paying the ultimate price. And what is Australia doing?

We are throwing fuel on the fire. Last week, Labor approved another coal project, the 37th new coal or gas project since coming to power—37 too many coal and gas projects. At the same time, Labor is celebrating new fracking in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, with the Minister for Resources grinning from ear to ear, while the Prime Minister was in the Pacific talking up Australia's climate leadership.

I mean, what a contradiction. What a disgrace. People see through this doublespeak.

Pacific island leaders, civil society, people on the front lines—they see through this. Thoughts and prayers simply do not cut it in 2026. Those thoughts and prayers will not stop climate disasters.

You cannot offer condolences with one hand and cut the ribbon for new fossil fuel projects with the other. How many more people need to die? The climate crisis is here now, but Labor's leadership is nowhere to be seen.

(Time expired) The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Neill ): The question is that the motion moved by Senator Waters be agreed to.