Greens WA spokesperson for climate change, Robin Chapple MLC, has questioned the value of the Senate Standing Committee’s enquiry into recent trends in preparedness for extreme weather events which will meet in Perth today.
“I’m obviously in favour of the government having the right information and evidence to make policy decisions appropriately. But in the past two weeks we’ve seen the Commonwealth cut funding to their only real adaptation research program, the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility,” said Chapple today.
I consider it indisputable that the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions is a major contributing factor in the increased incidence of extreme weather events including bushfire, drought, heatwaves, floods and storm surge, and that these events have major impacts on public infrastructure and community safety.
“It is patently the role of all spheres of government to address these issues, and they have a moral responsibility and a legal liability for the impacts, both short and long term that their policy decisions on climate change adaptation and mitigation might have.
“But with the agency responsible for climate change management in Western Australia seriously denuded, and with funding cut to the Indian Ocean Climate Initiative entirely, our state government is simply incapable of delivering an efficient or effective range of policy and operational climate change measures for the WA community,” said Mr Chapple.
“So my question to our governments is, ‘why ask the questions if you’ve already shelved the facilities that could provide you with the answers?’
The Office of Robin Chapple MLC made a submission to the Senate Standing Committee Enquiry (submission 167) which can be found here: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=ec_ctte/extreme_weather/submissions.htm
