STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE
Mr HUSIC (Chifley) (17:28): Anyone who watched the vision of furious walls of water sweep through Nepal, knowing the consequence, knowing what would happen as a result of that, could not fail to be moved by that, could not fail to be horrified by that. We knew exactly what the impact of that would be, that an intolerable human cost would emanate from that, and that is absolutely what has occurred.
At least 1,300 lives have been determined, calculated, as having been lost as a result. We've had an estimate of about 36 Australians impacted and 5½ thousand people remain missing. These numbers speak to a human toll, a human tragedy, as a result of those walls of water that swept through—whole villages completely swept away and now buried under an avalanche of mud.
Among those caught in the disaster were pilgrims pursuing, sustaining and honouring their faith and travelling to the base of Mount Kailash, a sacred mountain that has been revered by Hindus, by Buddhists, by Jains and by followers of indigenous Tibetan faiths. The people across Nepal, Tibet and China are all impacted, but, for many, the pilgrimage itself is a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual journey about faith, devotion and hope.
There were people from the electorate that I'm proud to represent who, I understand, were part of that pilgrimage as well and who have loved ones here desperately concerned to know—anxious to know—what has happened to them. That loss of life and widespread devastation on such a journey makes the tragedy even more heartbreaking. As I said, it's hitting close to home for my community.
Families here in Australia are spending days waiting for a phone call that has yet to come. When people are grieving, when lives are turned upside down and when families are facing that unimaginable loss, Australians don't look away. We reach out, we dig deep and we stand alongside those who are hurting and hurting deeply.
I was touched to witness this last Friday with the Blacktown Nepalese Community and the Association of Bhutanese in Australia. They had a candlelight vigil with a number of my parliamentary colleagues. In fact, federal, state and local representatives were all present to extend their deepest support to the Nepalese and Bhutanese community in our area.
We remembered and we prayed for those who, tragically, had lost their lives in the disaster. In moments like these, most of us cannot join a search and rescue team, and we can't fly humanitarian supplies into a disaster zone, but we certainly can come together, offer support and help carry that burden. Nepalese in our part of Western Sydney are deeply admired.
They have been tremendous members of our community who have built great bonds with people in our community with great respect. As I said to the vigil, 'When you hurt, we hurt as well,' because of the depth of the connection between the Nepalese in our Nepalese Australian community in our area. We want to be able to support them.
The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, in his role as the member for McMahon, was present. He also reflected—and I think it's worthy, and it's been reflected a number of times in the contributions made here today—on the generosity of Australians who have dug deep into their own pockets. They have already provided $4 million of their own to back in not only the government resources that a number of speakers have pointed to—the support that we provided in monetary terms—but also Australians going over to help, which has been significant.
It's a reminder that, in the face of immense tragedy, compassion will cross borders. It's a reminder of a shared humanity, that it's stronger than distance and that no community should have to face a disaster like this alone. We want to be able to be there.
Every dollar matters, obviously. It means food for families who've lost everything, temporary shelter for those forced to flee homes, medical care for the injured and support for communities beginning the long task of rebuilding. I just want to commend all the Australians that have gone over to help our Nepalese brothers and sisters.
I want to commend every one of those Australians that are serving with courage, professionalism and compassion in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. For the 36 Australians who remain unaccounted for and their families, we hold onto every hope for every single one of them and for the thousands of Nepalese families waiting for word. I think it's also important to acknowledge that, while Nepal has gone through many disasters of this nature in times past, we have to confront the fact that global warming will now place on countries like Nepal an intolerable burden of more extreme, more frequent events, potentially.
As the member for Bennelong rightly observed—and I want to endorse his contribution. He's talked about the low level of contribution that Nepal makes to global emissions and yet how it carries the burden and the impact of such events. Now, I understand that there will be families and those that are very much focused on providing comfort and support, and there will be people that won't necessarily engage in this.
But we have to understand, since the eighties, when we were first alerted to the impact of global warming, this was one of the things that was highlighted—that communities would have to contend with the impact of more extreme weather events. When you look at the 190 countries, and you look at who's prepared to be able to sustain themselves in the face of changes that are triggered by global warming, a lot of advanced economies are at the top of the list and able to sustain themselves.
At the bottom end of the 190 countries, there are a number of countries, including our Pacific brothers and sisters, who have to deal with the impact of global warming. Of the 190 countries, Nepal is at 140, and their Foreign minister has demanded that they will want to see more out of advanced economies to contribute compensation for the devastating floods. Their Foreign minister has called on the world's most polluting countries to 'wake up' and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that has led to death and disappearance.
Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods because they were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off that deadly landslide. Speaking to the media, Nepal's Foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, was very forthright in his call for climate justice, saying that it was imperative for the world's biggest economies to step up.
This is the reality. This is what's happening. It's not just about us preparing for adaptation.
We've got to be able to cut emissions further. We're already set to exceed the 1.5 degree increase in global temperatures that was central to the Paris Agreement. It looks like we're going to overshoot that.
We are going to be impacted this summer by one of the worst El Nino events. It's already been suggested that Australia will have to contend with freak droughts that are instantly imposed upon us as a result of it. It should not be that the world's poorest, least capable nations are left to face the burden of global warming without us cutting emissions further and being prepared to assist.
That demand will come upon us, but I think, in an event like this, where even people in Nepal are saying that this is having a big impact on them, it must be acknowledged—and not just acknowledged; we must be prepared to work on it and to do what it takes to make our contribution, as global citizen, to reduce emissions and to try and pare back that growth in global temperatures.
We owe it to countries like Nepal to do just that.