Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] The world's scientists have told us again recently that the climate crisis is at code red, and there's simply no room for any new coal, oil or gas. So how did the Liberal and Labor parties respond? In the Senate, Labor voted with the Liberals to give big gas corporations $50 million of public money to open up a new project and frack for gas in the Northern Territory. What's worse is that, if Labor had voted with us instead, we could have stopped the government. We had the numbers. But in a climate crisis, the Liberals, and now, sadly, Labor it appears, want more coal, oil and gas. This is criminal. Gas is as dirty as coal. Sixty-four years worth of Australia's pollution is stored underground in the NT, and that is exactly where it should stay, because unlocking toxic methane from the Beetaloo basin will light the fuse on a climate bomb much bigger than the Adani coal mine.

People want climate action and they want more of it, not less. Today a poll commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation found a majority of Australians in every single seat want more action on the climate crisis. People are worried. People are angry. No-one wants a gas-fired country or for their future to be held to ransom. They want renewables. They want a healthy environment today, tomorrow and for generations to come. But as Liberals and, sadly, Labor want more coal, oil and gas, it's clear we need to turf out this rotten government and give the Greens the balance of power to push the next government to act on the climate crisis.