Legislating for climate justice in Australia

ZALI STEGGALL OAM MP

Zali Steggall OAM is the Independent Federal Member for the seat of Warringah in Sydney’s North. She is also Australia’s most successful alpine skier, winning a bronze medal in slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, and a World Championship gold medal in 1999. From 2008, Zali was a practising Barrister, specialising in commercial law, sports law and family law. In 2019, Zali contested the Federal Parliamentary Seat of Warringah as an Independent Candidate. The seat had been held for nearly 25 years by former Prime Minister The Hon. Tony Abbott. Zali won the seat with a two-candidate preferred vote of 57.24%.

Last summer the world awoke to images of blood red skies in Australia. Fires raged across the Australian bush and toxic smoke blanketed cities for months. In its wake the bushfires left billions of animals wiped out; several thousand homes levelled; over 400 people dead (1); 4000 people admitted to hospital from smoke inhalation; and many more displaced.

The bushfires spared very little.

Climate change was thrust from the media sidelines into mainstream political discourse. No longer was it an issue for a few or for the future; it affected everyone, now.

The warnings had been there but repeatedly ignored. In 2019 Australia experienced its warmest summer on record. This was following on from 2018 and 2017 having been Australia’s third and fourth-hottest years ever. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, climate change has been causing the fire season to grow longer and more intense.

The Federal Government and the Prime Minister continue to minimise the risk of climate change and fail to properly address the problem. They deny what is so obvious to others such as climate scientists, farmers, and the United Nations - that the need for clear legislation to tackle climate change is evident.

The Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation) Bill (2) 2020 proposes a long-term plan for Australia to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, to implement sensible, five-year emission reduction budgets to get there, and to introduce accountability to identify and adapt to future risks like worsening fire seasons. The Bill is modelled on the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Act, passed in 2008, that has been effective (3).

In March, a week before I was about to introduce the Bill, we were rocked by another crisis – COVID-19. If we had not already seen the indiscriminate nature of the bushfires, the reality of a pandemic shook every part of society, including the suspension of the normal proceedings of Parliament.

Face masks that were for smoke now warded off the virus. Since then, life as we know it has been put on hold and there will no doubt be further changes in the months to come.

As we begin to build our economic recovery, there are valuable lessons learnt from both the bushfires and the pandemic that must be applied.

Both events have been ‘vulnerability multipliers’. Simply, they have a greater impact on the more vulnerable in our community: those with illnesses, the young and the elderly, and especially those in poorer communities.

You can see this in the many rural and regional communities – who were already doing it tough – now devastated by last summer’s climate-accelerated bushfires and likely to be most affected by extreme weather events, adverse health impacts and increased economic risk.

We are at a point in time where the focus on emissions reduction is not only of environmental benefit, but economic advantage. We have had a dozen reports outlining employment opportunities in such fields as renewables, energy efficiency, and hydrogen. One report from Beyond Zero Emissions shows that we can put 355,000 people per year back into work – many in disadvantaged communities.

But in order to drive positive outcomes, we will need a strong policy framework and fiscal support. The Climate Change Bill is the perfect complement to a clean recovery underpinned by climate justice. Though it does not prescribe a specific technological mechanism, the Bill sets key guiding principles, including generational and regional equity, and good fiscal management.

The Climate Change Bill will be introduced in November 2020 as a Private Member’s Bill. Passed, it would set a net-zero target by 2050 in law.

Net-zero does not mean no emissions. It means we need to balance the carbon we put into the atmosphere with what we draw down through tree planting and soils - just like balancing a budget.

This is not new. Every Australian state and territory has a net-zero target in either law or policy.

Importantly, the target can be ramped up if circumstances change. The Bill also establishes a process to get to net zero by requiring the setting of 5-yearly emissions budgets.

Taking steps to future-proof the Australian economy will benefit us now and into the future. At the Commonwealth level, many MPs have said that they support climate action. Now is the time to show it.

The Government must act. Further delay is not acceptable. It has a duty to deliver policy that provides equity in all its forms: racial, regional, and generational.

Unfortunately, no matter what we do, certain impacts from warming are likely locked in, as we saw last summer. As a matter of priority, we must have clear, reliable risk assessment and adaptation planning. This will develop greater resilience and strive to mitigate the worst by getting to net-zero by 2050. Then we will have true climate justice.

1. Includes deaths caused by bushfire smoke. See https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/australiassummer-bushfire-smoke-killed-445-and-put-thousands-in-hospital-inquiry-hears#:~:text=A%20study%20overlaying%20 hospital%20admissions,admissions%20to%20hospitals%20for%20asthma

2. See www.zalisteggall.com.au/zali_steggall_mp_relaunches_climate_change_bill. The full text of the bill can be seen at https://climateactnow.com.au

3. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/contents