Renewed urgency: Leichhardt MP brings Torres Strait to front line of national emissions debate
Meetings with future climate refugees and frustration with emissions reduction debates have prompted a Far North MP to deliver an impassioned speech in Canberra, warning that a lack of action will serve as a death sentence for our northernmost islands.
Meetings with future climate refugees and frustration with emissions reduction debates have prompted a Far North MP to deliver an impassioned speech in Canberra, warning that a lack of action will serve as a death sentence for our northernmost islands.
Member for Leichhardt Matt Smith rose in Parliament last week, scolding the LNP’s rejection of net zero targets that “betray” Torres Strait Islanders facing the risk of losing their homes to rising sea levels.
Shadow Minister for Northern Australia Susan McDonald has rejected the ALP’s commitment to environmental reforms, arguing more nails had been hammered into Australia’s “coffin of economic activity”.
Since adopting net zero, energy prices have increased by 40 per cent and thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost across Australia, Senator Matt Canavan said.
But the typically mild-mannered MP hasn’t backed down, claiming that the nation must emerge as a renewables “super power” if it is to keep pace with global leaders like Japan, South Korea and China in the sustainable energy sector.
“I didn’t mean to go that hard,” Mr Smith said. “But the Torres Strait has been asking for this for years – as long as I’ve been travelling up there.
“It’s happening right now and we’re having these arguments about it and it’s, it’s a life or death scenario.
“It’s a threat to culture, it’s a threat to homes, it’s a threat to way of life. I wanted to make the point and I wanted to make it forcefully.”
A video of Mr Smith’s Parliamentary put-down, posted on his social media, has garnered more than 80,000 views since it was released, inspired in part by recent meetings with Torres Strait leaders.
“I started doing my speech … and it was going to be, ‘This is an economic opportunity’ type of thing, and … and it’s like, well, ‘You guys just don’t get it,” he said.
“You’re not on the ground with the people that climate change is impacting. And it’s my job to speak for them. And the more I spoke, the more I felt, well, you still don’t get it.
“They started interjecting and I just thought, ‘Alright, let’s do this. Gloves are off’.”
The Far North was primed to play a critical role in the nation’s transition to renewables, Mr Smith said.
“Silica plays a big part in the production of solar panels,” he said. “We’ve got really high grade silica right throughout North Queensland, there’s another deposit in Cape Flattery that people are pretty keen about and we’ve got tungsten.
“We can bring electricity through renewable energy to places (internationally) that currently don’t have it. That’s the sort of soft power that is incredibly important from a global perspective. We’ve got that chance.”
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Originally published as Renewed urgency: Leichhardt MP brings Torres Strait to front line of national emissions debate
