PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (10:57): I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) extreme weather caused $4.8 billion in insured losses in Australia in 2025, according to the Insurance Council of Australia; (b) home insurance premiums increased by 51 per cent in the past five years, according to data analytics firm Finity; (c) the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation advises that each dollar invested by Government in climate adaptation or disaster risk reduction saves up to $11 in recovery costs; and (d) research from the University of New South Wales warns that economic models excluding global weather impacts can substantially underestimate climate damage, including supply-chain disruptions; (2) recognises that: (a) climate resilience is essential to household security, insurance affordability and national productivity; and (b) short term construction savings should not come at the expense of building standards that reduce long-term energy bills, disaster damage and rebuilding costs; and (3) calls on the Government to: (a) legally mandate independent national climate change risk assessments to be conducted every five years; (b) allocate 0.25 per cent of gross domestic product to national climate adaptation and disaster resilience, with this funding structure to be reviewed and adjusted every five years following the publication of each independent national climate change risk assessment; (c) establish a fully funded national adaptation plan to determine measurable outcomes and timelines, with annual evaluations submitted to Parliament; (d) establish an independent National Climate Adaptation Authority to manage, implement, and coordinate resilience plans across jurisdictions; (e) update the National Construction Code and strengthen land-use planning frameworks to promote low-cost, climate-resilient housing and protect communities from extreme weather risks; and (f) release a declassified version of the Office of National Intelligence report into climate change-induced security threats so the public and policymakers fully understand the risks Australia faces.

The laws of physics and their consequences don't care whether you believe in them or not, and in fact they don't even care whether you understand them. The reality is they are going to happen. Despite what many in this place believe, the physics of climate change is not going away.

In fact, it's only escalating, because as pollution increases so do the consequences. Climate fuelled damage currently costs Australia and Australians all around our country around $38 billion annually, rising to at least $73 billion by 2060 even under our best-case emissions reduction scenarios. According to UNSW, the full economic cost of climate change is estimated to be around $22,000 per person.

That's every one of you whether you believe in it or not and whether you have caused it or not. But the costs are not only economic—biodiversity loss, threats to national and regional security, rising cost-of-living pressures and harm to people's health, homes, livelihoods and our very way of life. It's a disruption and sometimes loss of that way of life that we need to address with urgency.

We have a responsibility to protect and prepare our communities for these risks. That responsibility extends beyond Australia to our Pacific neighbours. We need to make sure our whole region is safer.

Across the Pacific, extreme weather events, sea-level rise and ocean warming are already having devastating impacts on communities, economies and ecosystems. These nations have contributed little to global emissions, yet they face some of the most severe consequences of a changing climate. And don't think that is just happening there.

Coastal Australian communities are facing much the same challenges. That's why I continue to push the government and call for an independent national climate change risk assessment and adaptation plan every five years, backed by legislation. I'm calling for Australia to invest a quarter of a per cent of GDP in climate adaptation and disaster resilience.

This must be reviewed against each new risk assessment. We need to get to a point where Australians are actually protected. It should not be ordinary Australians left to pay.

We need to ensure polluters pay for the damage they are causing. We need governments to prioritise ensuring that our built environment can actually withstand future extreme weather events. Nearly 50 per cent of buildings standing in 2050 will be built between now and then, which means today's building codes are vital to ensure that we build fit-for-purpose and safe, climate-resilient homes.

We need to uplift building standards and ensure we have robust land-use planning that takes into account these risks, not wind back those resilience measures in our building codes. Both the government and the coalition are winding back requirements for resilience. That is absolute lunacy.

While subpar standards might help to reduce construction timeframes now—and developers will enjoy those standards—ordinary Australians will pay the price, because the cheapest house you build is the one you build only once. It is not the one that is destroyed in every disaster. Climate change also presents a national security threat.

I continue to push the government to release a declassified version of the Office of National Intelligence's report on climate induced security threats. This week, there's a lot on the agenda as we head into COP. I'm hosting two roundtables focusing on practical solutions.

The first brings together representatives from the finance and insurance sectors to examine how we can mobilise investment in climate adaptation and resilience. The second is to look at the impact on the Pacific and our geopolitics. For many in Australia who have been criticising the Pre-COP in Fiji where I decided to go in a private capacity to hear from those communities and the challenges they face, we don't blink an eye at investing $600 million to launch an NRL team in Papua New Guinea to ensure we have good geopolitical relations with Papua New Guinea.

The investment around the Pre-COP was to bring together the leaders of Pacific nations so they could work on solutions, collectivise their efforts and their power in negotiating for finance for loss and damage compensation and look at how are they going to build resilience within their islands and electrify their operations. There were so many heart-wrenching stories that came from those Pacific communities.

Australians should remember our Torres Strait Islands are at just the same risk of being swallowed up by the seas as so many Pacific islands, and yet there is still not the action needed. At the same time as the government is at Pre-COP making many promises, there is also still approval of more coal and gas. This is pollution that keeps making the problem worse.