House debates

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Committees

Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts Committee; Report

6:57 pm

Photo of Dick AdamsDick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to speak on the report that has been handed down, Managing our coastal zone in a changing climate: the time to act is now, put together by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts. In this inquiry, the committee was charged with having particular regard to:

  • existing policies and programs related to coastal zone management, taking in the catchment-coast-ocean continuum
  • the environmental impacts of coastal population growth and mechanisms to promote sustainable use of coastal resources

That is all very good. I am sure you, Madam Deputy Speaker Saffin, would be pleased to have that as a reference. The terms of reference continued:

  • the impact of climate change on coastal areas and strategies to deal with climate change adaptation, particularly in response to projected sea level rise
  • mechanisms to promote sustainable coastal communities
  • governance and institutional arrangements for the coastal zone.

I do not think many people realise quite how vulnerable we are to the effects of climate change in our coastal areas. It was quite an eye-opener when I travelled to North Queensland with the caucus environment committee during the previous parliament and took part in hearings about what was already happening on our coastline and what was being built there. There were very large houses, mansions, being built right on the seafront, with little in front of them except trees. This was only a few years ago, but people were still building very close to the shore in coastal regions.

It is not so much the rise in sea levels that is of concern to me but the changes in climate and the fiercer climatic events that we will have to face. Those have already led to some extreme erosion, and not just on the coast. I watched the river in my home town rise to quite high levels this year. Although that has been quite usual at times in the past, it has caused enormous damage to the land on either side and on the hinterland, to some degree, because of the untimely removal of vegetation from the wrong areas. Yes, they were basically weeds and really needed replacing with natives along the banks, but the lack of understanding of climatic events led to some silly decisions being made. I do not find it odd that many of the findings in this report relate more to the lack of information at a local government level than to deliberate acts by people to desecrate the landscape. Today one of the papers in Tasmania had the headline ‘Rising tides of alarm’. The story states:

MORE than 20 per cent of Tasmania’s coast could be affected by rising seas in the next 50 years.

       …         …         …

A federal parliamentary report says 17,000 buildings in Tasmania and 21 per cent of the state’s coast are at risk of erosion and recession from sea-level rise within the next 50 to 100 years.

The media can be a bit of a panic merchant. Although we do need to take the warnings in this report seriously, there is no need for people to shut down and move away. There has to be some sensible assessment of what the risks are and how we manage them. Councils will have to review how they charge for works to fix and protect coastal areas, and residents might have to be differently rated depending on where they live and how their buildings are structured. In Tasmania the local government association’s chief executive, Allan Garcia, said to the Mercury:

“Along the coastlines and around … rivers in Tasmania there is certainly going to be far more scrutiny as to the standard of building,” he said.

He said people wanting to build on the coast would have to prove their houses could withstand climate-change impacts, and developments on reclaimed land would be less likely to get approval.

“Any canal estate development is going to have some significant hurdles to jump,” he said.

In North Queensland they build to meet high-wind and cyclone standards, and that is what we are starting to look at in other parts of Australia to address changes in our climate. That is not to say development of any sort should be banned, but it should be able to withstand extreme weather, and this is a new level that we will need to come to in regulations.

One of my constituents in Primrose Sands who bought a block of land there 11 years ago joked in the paper that he would shift the sand dunes to improve his view. Now they are fighting to preserve the dunes that protect their dream retirement home from changes in sea level. Storm surges have already pushed through and widened a gap in the dunes from 100 metres right up to his front yard. So people must become more informed and aware when they are seeking a sea change of the consequences of building in very low-lying areas. We have some particularly vulnerable spots in Tasmania, and of course our island has a very big coastline. Some of those vulnerable spots are well known, but there are others that might need some attention.

This report gives us a heads-up to take into account in our planning schemes and in our overall strategy planning at a state level. There needs to be overarching federal leadership. Coastal problems are national, not just state or local, but they do have those local manifestations, as I have mentioned. We really need some national direction and technical and financial support on it. So many of the local and regional bodies do not have the resources to provide the continuation of policy thinking, technical and information backup, and funding to meet the challenges of population growth in some of these areas. Infrastructure is how communities can best adapt to climate changes, especially if the sea rises a bit and there are storm surges and high winds to contend with.

This report gives a measured and close look at some of the problems we are facing and comes up with a number of carefully considered recommendations. I welcome the report and congratulate the bipartisan committee that has put the time and effort into reminding us of what can happen if we do not take the appropriate action now.

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