ZALI STEGGALL on our crucial moment for climate change

The Olympian and federal member for Warringah writes about the urgent need to act now and set up Australia for a sustainable future.

Ihave had a number of new beginnings in my life. While many people don’t like change, I am the opposite. I love the opportunity to start again with a clean slate, learn the lessons of the past and focus on the present, undaunted by the future, striving for results. New beginnings have been a big part of my life. First in my sporting career as an alpine skier, where I had to move on from each race, no matter the result, and focus on the next one. Then in my professional life, when I said goodbye to my 13-year international skiing career to focus on a career for 10 years as a barrister. Each court case was a new argument, where I had to put the best evidence forward. And then in 2019, when I set off on a really big new beginning, throwing myself into federal politics as the new independent member for Warringah, New South Wales. I am passionate about Warringah and creating the opportunity for a reset of Australia’s environmental and climate change policies.

The environment has always played a big part in my life as I love the outdoors. Throughout all my travels, Sydney’s Manly was always home, with its diverse natural environment, its beautiful coastline, the smell of the beach, the bright turquoise of the waves, the walking tracks from Manly to Spit Bridge and around Manly Dam. I have always known we need to do more to preserve our environment, respect it, nurture it and ensure it is there for generations to come.

Unfortunately, Australia is not on the right track to preserve our environment for future generations. We are currently headed to more than four degrees of warming in Australia by the end of the century. Australia is a continent highly exposed. We will suffer droughts and heatwaves, catastrophic bushfire seasons, and importantly for the local environment in Warringah, coastal erosion, rising ocean temperatures and extreme weather events.

I promised to be a climate leader in Canberra and put forward solutions to break the partisan politics that have prevented meaningful action for more than a decade. It is so important that we all come together to recognise the magnitude and importance of the challenge ahead but also the opportunity of the transition to low emissions technologies.

I have tabled in parliament the Climate Change Bills, modelled on similar legislation passed in the UK in 2008, that would lock into law a commitment to net zero by no later than 2050 with clear emissions reduction budgets every five years. The Climate Change Bills would make sure the government relies on the best independent expert advice and that our communities are properly prepared, that the risks and impacts of climate change are assessed.

The 2019-2020 catastrophic bushfires saw so many Australians become climate refugees, homeless, huddling on beaches, waiting to be evacuated. Those images can never be forgotten. Here in Warringah, thick smoke blanketed our air for months, shrouding our beaches. During the recent inquiry into the Climate Change Bills, Local Government NSW indicated that local government-owned public assets valued at $212 billion are at risk from climate change from extreme storms, flooding and coastal erosion.

Meanwhile, the government continues to deny the need to act with urgency. The Prime Minister often says the ‘when’ is not important, just ‘how’ we reduce emissions, resisting the need to lock in firm targets and goals. But this is not true. The ‘when’ matters very much. This can’t be kicked down the road. We have a window of opportunity over the next 10 years to reduce emissions and set up Australia, so we must find the courage and will to take it.

With threat also comes opportunity. Australia is so well placed with a natural advantage, bountiful sunshine, space and wind to be a leader in the energy transition. Our businesses, investment sectors, industries and health experts all agree that Australia needs to act now. They support the framework proposed in the Climate Change Bills and have called on the government to act.

In responding to the coronavirus pandemic, the government responded to the warnings from our independent health experts, closed our borders and established ‘Fortress Australia’ at great personal and economic cost to all Australians. Lockdowns and quarantine have largely held the virus at bay while we wait for the vaccines. But there will be no vaccine to climate change, its impacts won’t be quelled by lockdowns or quarantines. It won’t respect any borders. Everyone will be impacted.

So it’s time for a new beginning in climate policy in Australia, it’s time for the government to listen to the experts.

To find out more about Australia’s Climate Change Bills, go to climateactnow.com.au.