Adjournment: Climate Justice and Action
[7.16 p.m.]
Ms BURNET (Clark) - Honourable Speaker, I rise tonight to address a matter of profound importance to the future of our state, our region and our planet ‑ the urgent need for climate justice and decisive environmental action. Just days ago, the latest United Nation's (UN) climate report delivered a stark, undeniable reality check The report warns that crossing the 1.5-degree warming threshold is now imminent under current emissions trajectories, forcing us into a critical race to limit overshoot and prevent irreversible ecological harm. This is not a distant theoretical threat. We see it in the shifting weather patterns, in our own backyards, the rising risk of catastrophic bushfires, and the severe cost-of-living impacts hitting Tasmanian families through skyrocketing insurance premiums and agricultural volatility.
Yet as global warnings grow more urgent, grassroots leadership is showing us the path forward. This September, the Uniting Climate Action Network is coordinating its 2026 Month of Action. Congregations right across the country and right here in Hobart, including Rev Simone Smalley and the community at Hobart North Uniting Church, are standing up to call for meaningful, community-driven action. Their message is clear and uncompromising ‑ climate justice: leave no‑one behind. The Uniting Climate Action Network's 2026 statement grounds this call in a fundamental truth ‑ while climate change affects everyone, it hits poorer, marginalised and vulnerable communities first and hardest, as we are seeing right now in Nepal and across the globe.
True climate justice demands that as we rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and towards 100 per cent renewable energy, we must ensure that lower‑income households, renters and regional communities are supported through every step of that transition.
The principle of justice extends far beyond our shores. With Australia serving as president of negotiations for COP31 alongside Pacific Partners, we have a clear responsibility to elevate and centre Pacific priorities. Our Pacific neighbours are on the frontline of sea level rise and ocean displacement. They are not asking for passive sympathy. They are demanding climate finance, ocean protection and genuine ambition to keep global targets alive.
We cannot treat climate policy as a divisive political football or delay action for short‑term political gain. I commend the Uniting Climate Action Network, Rev Simone Smalley, and every community member participating in the Month of Action. I urge this parliament to match their courage, heed the warnings of global science and commit to a fair, just and rapid transition that truly leaves no-one behind.