Page 3302 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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I think it is also, in my portfolio responsibilities as the Minister for Mental Health, important to recognise the impact that these difficult, difficult periods can have on some of our rural leaseholders. There has been a growing awareness nationally of the physical and mental health impacts of climate change, particularly heatwaves and drought. In November last year I launched a report from renowned medical journal the Lancet which highlighted a link between climate change and health, including mental health, reinforcing the need to take climate action and declaring that policy inaction on climate change is threatening Australian lives. The Countdown report, which was developed by 19 leading scientists from 13 universities and research institutes, was the first report of its kind and tracked progress in health and climate change in Australia. The report was yet another warning that we must take urgent action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The warning from leading academics and scientists around the world is clear: policy inaction on climate change threatens Australian lives. If we want good health outcomes in Australia we need to address these issues. The report showed that human health in Australia is highly vulnerable to climate change across a wide range of areas. It also showed that climate change negatively affects mental health, with people’s mental wellbeing particularly affected by temperature extremes. A warming planet means more hot weather, a known cause of harm to mental health. In Australia hot days have a detrimental effect on population-level mental health, equivalent to that of unemployment, and unfortunately these days also serve as a predictor of hospitalisation for self-harm.
The Greens understand the government’s desire to help, and we are happy to support this motion with the amendment. I will later move an amendment to the original motion to ensure that we all acknowledge the role that climate change is having on our rural communities. I acknowledge the work of current and future generation of farmers and rural communities to mitigate climate impacts wherever possible and adapt farming methods to the increasing challenges, as required. Along with farmers, it will also take the concerted effort of governments, scientific bodies and environmentalists to support further shifts in agricultural production methods in adapting to further droughts and extreme weather patterns.
Innovations in farming practice focused on low-volume water use, ground cover planting, erosion control and reafforestation are happening now. I do not wish to diminish these efforts, but the old ways simply will not cut it anymore and we will need more of the new way to produce a resilient farming sector in the future. There are lots of innovations underway in many parts of the primary production sector, including some terrific examples right here in our own region, both inside the ACT border and also just outside. Many of these are brought about by a new generation of farmers who can see what the impact of climate change will do to their farms, their inheritances, if they do not adapt methods now.
Natural sequence farming is one of these adaptations that are getting a lot of attention in our region. Developed by Peter Andrews, natural sequence farming primarily works to restore natural water cycles that allow the land to flourish despite drought conditions. This was a fairly controversial technique in the rural community when
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