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Please visit our Climate Act Now website: www.climateactnow.com.au

It is time for a plan to address climate change. The UK passed the Climate Change bill in 2008, then amended last year to lock in Net zero by 2050. It all started from a private member’s bill.

I will be presenting the Climate Change bill in parliament. I believe that people can make change happen. I look at Warringah and how energised everyone is to be speaking up, to be independent, to have a voice beyond party lines.

The key features to the legislation will be to provide Climate Change Risk Assessment for all sectors such as health, agriculture, energy and transport and a National Adaptation Programme, to ensure Australia has a plan to meet increasing challenges, clearly vitally important when we consider our current unprecedented fires and drought.

A comprehensive framework law is an essential tool for coordinating adaptation of all sectors to warming climates and increase resilience. The Climate Change bill sets statutory targets, assigns clear duties and responsibilities and provides clarity about the long-term direction of travel. Economy-wide, multi-year targets, set well in advance, help to define a clear yet flexible path towards the long-term climate objective.

It establishes a Climate Change Commission, to provide expert advise on climate policy and long-term objectives, and assesses the effectiveness of Government policy proposals for adaptation and mitigation. A strong independent body is critically important to ensure consistent policy delivery and evidence based decision-making.

All of this is desperately needed in Australia. We need a plan. To make this happen, everyone needs to demand of their local MP to step out from behind party lines. It is not ok to say you believe in climate change action if you are going to follow up with “and the Morrison Government is doing enough”. It isn’t. And people know it.

The UK did this in 2008. 2020 needs to be the year Australia does it. #ClimateActNow

Picture: AAP, Darren Pateman