Global order, climate targets for newcomers

A crumbling world order and tackling climate change are the focus for the successors of Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

Warringah independent Zali Steggall, centre, is congratulated by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, right, after delivering her maiden speech yesterday. Picture: AAP

A crumbling global order and the fight against climate change are the key targets for Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott’s successors in parliament.

Wentworth Liberal MP Dave Sharma and Warringah independent Zali Steggall joined a host of other new MPs who gave their maiden speeches in parliament yesterday.

Mr Sharma, Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, warned that the decline of the US and the rise of China meant Australia needed a more independent foreign policy, even if it meant missing out on trade and market opportunities.

“Our strategic holiday is over,” he told the house yesterday.

“Our neighbourhood is getting tougher; the certainties on which we’ve depended for decades are no longer so certain; and we will need to rely more on ourselves, and less on others, in safeguarding our freedoms and our independence.

“At times, we may need to pay an economic or political price — a trade opportunity forgone, a market missed, a bumpy period in diplomatic relations — in order to retain our freedom of action as an independent and sovereign nat­ion, or to stand up for values we support, or to uphold key principles in the current global order.”

The new MP for Wentworth echoed Mr Turnbull in calling for greater investment in technology start-ups and argued for more political stability safeguarded by four-year parliamentary terms.

“During my time as Australia’s ambassador to Israel, I dealt with only one Israeli prime minister, but I served four different Australian prime ministers,” he said.

Ms Steggall, who defeated Mr Abbott in the Sydney seat of Warringah on a platform of tackling climate change, said conservatives needed to lead on the environment and pointed to another conservative leader, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. “In the 1980s, a conservative Thatcher government led the way in banning CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in the atmosphere,” Ms Steggall said.

“Thatcher’s words to the UN General Assembly in 1989 are ­appropriate today: ‘We carry common burdens, face common problems and must respond with common action.’

“I urge this 46th parliament to be remembered for developing a comprehensive plan to decarbonise every polluting sector by 2050 and then putting it into action.”

Ms Steggall became emotional as she recalled her time in 1998 as a bronze medal-winning Winter Olympian.

“It was a long hard and often lonely road, with many sacrifices but ultimately so rewarding as I took Australia to the peak of alpine skiing,” she said. “I felt a huge sense of responsibility representing Australia … especially when carrying the Australian flag into the closing ceremony in Nagano.”