STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE
Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (16:59): I rise to express my deepest condolences to everyone affected by the catastrophic flooding in Nepal and across the border in Tibet. More than 1,300 people have died, and thousands remain missing following the disaster on 26 August. Behind those numbers are families waiting for news and communities whose homes and livelihoods have been swept away.
My thoughts are with the Nepalese and Tibetan communities here in Australia and with the families of Australians still unaccounted for. The uncertainty they are enduring is heartbreaking. I want to thank the rescuers, humanitarian workers and consular officials supporting them.
I certainly welcome the Australian government's $11 million in humanitarian assistance package and the deployment of specialist personnel to assist in the response. What we've also seen is the best of Australian values in the generous response by so many in our communities and through NGOs. We know NGOs play such a critical role during times like this.
Collectively, Australians and NGOs have raised more than $9 million. It's a reminder of the important role they play, and so I call on the government to maintain investment in NGOs to ensure they can keep building capabilities on the ground in so many communities. We often have that issue when we talk about foreign aid—that it is about building capacity in vulnerable nations.
We know that immediate assistance is essential and that immediate capabilities on the ground and that network is incredibly important because we know, unfortunately, we are likely to keep seeing escalating and more and more disasters of this nature. The responsibility is on governments to prevent further harm. The warning is stark.
Compassion and thoughts must be matched by action in terms of adapting, preparing and trying to better anticipate where such disasters could occur. We know in many situations climate risks are exacerbating the likelihood of these events. Early scientific analysis points to a huge collapse of glacier ice and rock near the Langtang Lirung.
Material surged down the mountainside into the river system, setting off a devastating sequence of debris flows and flooding. Of course, I acknowledge the investigation is ongoing and that much is not known yet as to the early causes of this tragedy and this massive disaster, but the wider evidence around climate driven risk is telling, compelling and indisputable.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that human influence is very likely the main driver of global glacier retreat since the 1990s. I've seen all too often where glaciers are just melting at record rates. In 2023, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development reported that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya lost ice 65 per cent faster in 2011 to 2020 than in the preceding decade.
That is the impact of warming. Warming also thaws the frozen ground that helps hold mountain slopes together. Retreating ice can remove support from steep slopes, while increased meltwater can make glaciers slide more easily.
These changes can create the conditions for catastrophic collapse. I have found myself in valleys when there has been that kind of breakaway ice and massive movements from glaciers, particularly in Chamonix in the French Alps. It is staggering when it happens.
The noise, the volume and impact is just really hard to describe. So I think we really have to have this conversation around monitoring, measuring and acknowledging how much our warming climate is going to put so many communities at risk that may find themselves in valleys such as this. We can't yet quantify how much climate change contributed to this particular tragedy, but we can say with absolute certainty that continued warming increases dangerous instability in high mountain environments and that communities need much stronger protection.
The growing danger is a consequence of decades of inadequate action. Every delay in cutting pollution allows more warming to continue and makes the task of keeping people safe harder. The ultimate tragedy of this, in particular, is that those who have contributed the least to warming through emissions are the ones paying the highest price.
By continually downplaying risks, governments are failing to invest in adaptation and preparedness and leaving communities exposed. In Warringah, we know climate risk reaches into people's homes and household budgets. Flood exposure and unaffordable insurance already affect our community.
I've repeatedly called for greater investment in prevention and resilience and for polluters to contribute to the cost. That responsibility extends beyond our borders. Communities such as in Nepal and Tibet and our Pacific island neighbours, communities with the fewest resources to prepare for climate impacts and risks, should not be left to deal with the tragic consequences when disasters strike.
Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, has called for climate compensation. As he said, 'We have contributed so little to climate change.' He called on those benefiting from larger, more polluting economies to accept a shared responsibility. I agree.
Australia should support that call, and we should apply the same principle to coal, oil and gas corporations who make obscene profits at the same time their products contribute to the warming that puts vulnerable communities at risk. It's time to make polluters pay and hold them responsible for the damage they are causing. First, Australia should make a new climate finance pledge in line with our global fair share.
We are heading into COP, and so there is a responsibility on Minister Bowen as president of the COP and on Australia as a major contributor through fossil fuel exports to global warming. That climate finance pledge should reflect our capacity to contribute and our responsibility for pollution with a clear timetable and transparent reporting on delivery, particularly as Australia is the 15th highest fossil fuel contributor per capita.
That funding should be additional to existing development assistance. Helping people recover from climate damage must not come at the expense of their access to health care, education or food security. Second, we should prioritise international funds supporting low-income and climate-vulnerable countries like Nepal, including the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage and the Adaptation Fund.
We need support for recovery alongside investment that helps prevent the next tragedy. That means grants accessible to affected communities supporting early warning systems, safer infrastructure and locally led recovery. Countries already carrying the costs of climate change should not be pushed further into debt to rebuild after disaster.
Third, Australia should establish a climate pollution levy on coal, oil and gas corporations operating here, with revenue paid into a dedicated climate compensation fund. The fund should provide a reliable contribution to climate recovery, including international loss and damage support for vulnerable countries. It should have independent oversight, public reporting and meaningful involvement from the communities it serves.
Fourth, Australia should advocate internationally for other countries to introduce equivalent levies. It is time to step up and lean into leadership. It's not enough to show up and say you care if your actions don't match that stated care.
We should use our diplomacy, including at climate negotiations and the G20, to build support for making fossil fuel producers contribute to climate compensations for countries like Nepal who are paying the price. Compensation, of course, can't replace the people who have been lost, but it can help survivors rebuild their lives and help communities prepare for the risks ahead.
They're prepared to make sure that the rebuilding is adapted and aware of the ongoing risks. It must be accompanied by faster emissions reductions, of course. A levy can't become a licence to keep expanding the pollution that drives all these harms and risks.
The families affected by this disaster deserve sustained support. They also deserve governments willing to act on the science, confront the cost of inaction and delay and hold major polluters accountable. As much more is going to be discovered around this tragedy—and, of course, there is so much more—whilst it is great to see the government step up around aid and the $11 million committed, what is so frustrating is that we don't see that same willingness to invest in capacity building, adaptation and resilience before disaster strikes.
It is the same story time and time again. Money is found after disasters have occurred. The government needs to start finding money before disasters occur to invest in adaptation and resilience.