Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin – Leader of the Greens) – Well, that was a very disappointing process that we went through with the government. Yes, we did have some – what I’d hoped were good‑faith conversations with the minister, but it makes it very difficult when he’s agreed to making amendments and separating them, then doing them as a job lot. As I made very clear: there were a number of things in what was proposed that the Greens would have been happy to support and we tried to present opportunities for a win‑win situation, if you like. However, we cannot support sanitising the facts out of this motion and it is 100 per cent true that the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast the coming El Niño will be the largest event recorded in history. We would have been happy to have added those clarifying words, which is a point I made to the minister, but he chose to instead talk about what’s going on this spring, which is a completely different place.
We were also happy to add in the government’s response, noting the government’s response to the independent review of the climate change act, but we can’t support removing the reality that the government’s response to the independent review does have their failure to commit to supporting strengthening the climate change act, or undertaking adaptation planning in line with the review’s recommendations. That is a fact. They were only supported in principle, and you only have to look at the 11‑page government response to the review to see how many caveats there are to their supposed concern about adaptation planning. On behalf of stakeholders and Tasmanians who are concerned about this coming summer, we’re deeply disappointed at what the government is yet again doing, which is not prioritising action on climate change. When you have a motion that doesn’t ultimately call on the parliament to have a tabled copy of the adaptation plan and the preparations and the actions that are being taken, that is a concern.
If the government’s going to make it public, why wouldn’t they table it? I don’t quite understand the resistance of this government to be upfront with Tasmanians and to provide information in a formal way. We will be doing everything we can to pressure the government to show us and the people of Tasmania what gaps they’re plugging in preparation because we know where the gaps are, we talk to people in the community, we talk to people in local council, we talk to TFS and SES volunteers, we hear from them that they don’t have the resources, we hear from them that they’re not armed with the staffing and the human resources needed to go out and have the conversations in the community.
The response from the fire and emergency services minister tells you everything about this government’s response to bushfire prevention. It’s individualistic. Everything is on the person, it is individualised, so every single person is responsible on their own to download and make their own bushfire safety plan. Yes, there are education sessions provided by fantastic TFS volunteers; they’re very few and far between and that’s not their fault. They don’t have time and resourcing to do it. They’re not supported by the government to do that. But people need details. People who have English as a second language, people who are old, people who are not able to drive or have other abilities that mean they’re not able to get to the very few community bushfire events that are run to provide people with advice. That’s the sort of on-the-ground support that we need to see, so when the government says that they are going to be plugging the gaps in preparedness, that’s what we’re going to hold them to account for because Tasmanians deserve to have the support they need to keep themselves safe in the coming El Niño summer. We don’t know what’s going to unfold, but we are listening to Tasmanians who are deeply concerned and expect this government to do everything possible to prepare us and keep us safe.
