Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We now have Senator Williams from the coal corporation party trying to interject and I would be interested to hear what he has to say in defence of this legislation. It would be challenging indeed and quite a pleasant surprise to this chamber to hear that he knew even the basics of what this disallowance motion is about. I record for the benefit of people who might look back and read this crucial debate that at the moment there are eight senators in the chamber. So be it, but I congratulate Senator Milne for moving this disallowance motion. It should be supported by, for example, the Queensland senators in the coalition, if they are concerned about the impending fate of the Great Barrier Reef. It should be supported by National and Labor Party senators who represent seats in the Murray-Darling Basin, where 128,000 jobs depend on us curbing climate change. It should be supported by everybody who is working in the alpine tourism industries because, from predictions, they will not have one by mid-century if climate change keeps going the way it is. Instead of that, we have wall-to-wall support for the coal industries, 75 per cent owned outside this country, from the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the National Party today. It has taken Senator Milne to bell that cat. The cat can keep killing, but at least the bell has been rung by Senator Milne, and I congratulate her for that.