Private Members Time: Climate Change

Ms BURNET (Clark) - Thank you, honourable Speaker. I'd like to thank Dr Woodruff for bringing this to the House and to acknowledge the advocacy of the Greens over many years in this space. The warnings are very clear: we have the El Niño on our doorstep, we have record warm months, we have changing weather patterns; and just today, as the honourable minister alluded to, the Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC), have released their national bushfire outlook for spring. Authorities are predicting a heightened risk of fire across the northeast and eastern Tasmania, particularly for our state, because of low rainfall, and expect more dry conditions for the summer. We have local and world events and we have known of the impacts of climate change for years, yet the government is simply not doing the work needed to prepare us for what is coming down the line. According to Climate Tasmania, a member of the government's powerless, advisoryonly climate change reference group, Tasmania is being dangerously complacent about the growing threat from climate change in the face of recent strong signs of a massive increase in global warming.

The government has let its Climate Change Action Plan expire and won't be releasing a new one until 2028. It has decided to ignore the recommendations from the independent review and has slashed funding of the Climate Change Office by 50 per cent. Australia as a small nation and Tasmania as a small state can both impact and be impacted by global climate change events. Preparing communities and adapting to protect communities, our infrastructure and our unique places such as our World Heritage Area is what we should not hesitate to do. This Greens motion calls on the need for work and leadership by the Premier, the minister for Climate Change and the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management in keeping communities safe before a disaster, and is what should set them out from the crowd. It is a call to immediate action. Action now by these senior ministers is a much more powerful position of leadership than the alternative of visiting devastated towns and flying over thousands of acres of burnt-out farmland in the World Heritage Area after a bushfire has ravaged the area.

It will be many more times worse when a community faces the same fate such as a bushfire or a flood in close succession, or a bushfire after one has already gone through that area. Imagine being the Premier, the minister for Climate Change or indeed the Police, Fire and Emergency Management minister, being there and knowing full well what the community knows, that more could and should have been done to adapt and ready the community and strengthen the infrastructure before a bushfire rips through again. Trust is eroded by leaders who do not seize the opportunity. With all the scientific data and seeing the changes on the land and the clear change in rainfall, ignoring the warning signs is folly.

What is required to get to that position? We should have good policy and we have the Climate Change (State Action) Act, but do we have the people on the ground to respond to the emergency? We can learn from other jurisdictions who have already stepped in to provide action on adapting to climate change for their communities. No one likes being dragged kicking and screaming, being called out on inaction, to be identified as having a flaw in their position. I don't believe that is the intention of this motion. It certainly isn't for me. It's about giving the government the room to take up the challenge to this wicked problem, to not be that MP or important person flying in after the best of Tasmania is devastated. It is about working with emergency services, local government authorities and councils and experts at the at CSIRO and UTAS, such as Professor David Bowman from the fire lab, to see how best we can adapt. It would include community care plans for the long recovery periods after the acute phase of a disaster passes. It would include strategic thinning of bushland near property, a better approach than hazard reduction burns.

Last week I stood with a number of community groups and businesses, a collaboration who were calling on the government for urgent action on adaptation measures directly in relation to the Climate Change (State Action) Act response. It's too important not to do. This week the Local Government Association have their annual conference in Hobart. I encourage minister Barnett to go along to that conference to hear from Mark Mugnaioni from RACT, who is talking about insurance affordability and community resilience, and talk to those members of local governments who are are very concerned and are on the front line in relation to responses to climate change.

The government is not leading the work in this policy area, but the Tasmanian Policy Exchange (TPE) is prepared to step up and has released its report addressing climate risk and insurance affordability in Tasmania, and I'll talk about two key takeaways from that report: firstly and significantly, many of the communities at highest risk from natural disasters or extreme weather are also some of the poorest in Tasmania. This means that Tasmanians with the greatest need for insurance are often the ones who can least afford it. Secondly, research from the fire centre at UTAS suggests that more active management of bushland within 50 metres of the interface between homes and bushland could reduce the number of properties assessed as having a dangerous level of bushfire exposure in Hobart and Glenorchy by 68 per cent, from 8939 to 2836.

Over the long term there is a clear need to increase investment in evidence-based programs that materially reduce the climate risk facing communities. Last week there was a memorandum of understanding signed between the government and the RACT and other organisations, and the TPE has welcomed this TasInsure partnership between the Tasmanian government and the RACT, which has done considerable work. That's their business; they know the risks. They analysed the risks associated with climate change. They also surveyed 11,000 members and non-members and between 70 per cent and 76 per cent want more action to reduce the impacts of natural disasters.

Adaptation is about ensuring that our workforce is prepared and properly equipped. Last week I met with the CPSU who told me their concerns of a depleted workforce in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRET) and the first responders during summer who are there to fight bushfires and protect our parks and wilderness areas. If we decimate that workforce, there is real concern that we won't be ready to fight those fires. We live in a beautiful place. We live in the foothills of Kunanyi. We know that we must be prepared because those communities are relying on us and the government to make sure that there is a statewide adaptation policy in place. We know about the impacts on communities of the 1967 bushfire, Riveaux Road in the Huon Valley and Dolphin Sands. We cannot allow that to happen again without preparing, because we know what will be coming.