Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We have a long and proud history in Australia of non-violent direct action and it usually happens when communities fail to have their concerns assessed fairly or when environmental compliance under state and federal laws is not upheld. Senator Abetz and the National Party have never listened to the community impacted by Whitehaven Coal's proposed Maules Creek Mine and they still aren't.

Senator Abetz refuses to recognise the serious discrepancies between Whitehaven Coal's claims about compliance and evidence that they are providing false and misleading information to obtain an approval under federal law. The Greens do not encourage people or companies to break the law and we believe neither are above the law. We believe the law should be applied with equal vigour when considering the actions of Jonathon Moylan and Whitehaven Coal. It is for that reason we urge Minister Burke to uphold the EPBC Act and this motion fails to take all this into context and we will be opposing it.