Page 566 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018
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As the risk of major disruption to Pacific rainfall had already increased by the end of the 20th century, some of the disruption actually witnessed in the real world may have been partially due to human release of greenhouse gases. The 1982-83 super El Nino event, for example, might have been less severe if global greenhouse emissions had not risen since the industrial revolution.
I could go on at length from BOM, which would qualify, I would think, as a universally respected source of information about not only our weather but our climate. The point I want to make to all members here and the entire community is that climate change is real; we are seeing the impacts now and they are only going to get worse. The need for urgent action cannot be overstated. I was lucky enough last night to join a capacity audience talking about drawdown—how we might actually reduce the carbon in our atmosphere. This is where we have to get to as soon as possible.
Road safety—Belconnen
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (6.53): I rise today to briefly refute remarks that Mrs Kikkert made about me and, with their indulgence, my colleagues Minister Ramsay and Minister Berry during the debate about the Tillyard Drive and Ginninderra Drive intersections. Mrs Kikkert incorrectly asserted that the Labor Ginninderra members had done nothing on this issue. That is blatantly false and she needs to apologise.
I can assure Mrs Kikkert, as I have assured my constituents, that this issue is a serious one for me and my colleagues, and we have all been publicly and privately lobbying those involved in the budget process. While Mrs Kikkert was in the chamber, I do not believe she was listening; but I will stress that my first question of the year in question time, as you will recall, Madam Speaker, was to Minister Fitzharris on this issue. Indeed much of what was in Mrs Kikkert’s motion today was addressed in Minister Fitzharris’s answers to me last week. In addition Minister Fitzharris underlined in her speech today the many times I have lobbied her on this issue in the lead-up to the budget process. So to say that I have done nothing is false.
I suggest to both Mrs Kikkert and Mrs Dunne that instead of attacking Labor Ginninderra government members, we in fact work together, given that we are all in furious agreement that something needs to be done with this intersection. To help with this, I ask, with the greatest respect, that Mrs Kikkert apologise to me and to my Labor colleagues for actively and knowingly misrepresenting our actions.
International Mother Language Day
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (6.55): I rise to recognise the significance of 21 February as Language Movement Day, a day which is also observed as International Mother Language Day around the world. As we have previously heard in this chamber, languages form an integral part of an individual’s identity. While Canberra is a diverse community, it is through language that we connect with our heritage, with our culture and, of course, with each other.
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