John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, there are more! In ‘Beachfront blitz to curb development’ Andrew Fraser starts off by sending a very powerful message across Australia:

A Federal parliamentary report has flagged new powers that would allow Canberra to block what it sees as inappropriate beachfront developments.

You have only to look at the photo in this newspaper to get some idea, as in the Fairfax press, how serious this is. It goes on to say:

The report, tabled yesterday in parliament, says national guidelines should be drawn up for development in sensitive coastal regions, and calls for local councils to operate within these guidelines.

It goes on and on. There is some very good reading there too.

It does not stop there. I have to give the Canberra Times a commercial, too, because they pick up on the title of our report—”‘Time to act is now’ on coastal climate risks”. David McLennan gives a very comprehensive report into the report of the committee.

This report is quite something. If I go to the substance of the report, which is contained in the recommendations—and there are some 47 of them—you will get some idea of the extent and breadth of this report and why it is important to act now. The recommendations are calling on the Australian government to:

… commission a study on international coastal zone governance arrangements, policies and programs for addressing coastal climate change impacts, and adaptation strategies. The completed study should be made public.

I could not agree more with that. At recommendation 2:

The Committee notes the importance of mitigation measures in addressing climate change impacts and accordingly recommends that the Australian Government continue to take urgent action to ensure that Australia can best contribute to a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.

I must applaud Dr Mal Washer, the member for Moore, who has really put his back into this report in getting a message through to our political opponents. I am sure he is playing a very important educational role, because it would be wonderful if we could get a bipartisan result to our CPRS legislation—which, as I referred to earlier, is being debated in the chamber as I speak—before we go to Copenhagen.

See this speech in context