Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

and giving out free ice-creams to raise awareness of the big mining companies' threat to the reef, much to the annoyance of the Queensland government—and to Senator Boswell's annoyance as well, I note.

There is a strong, vibrant, passionate and growing community movement that is standing up for the reef, and the Greens are proud to be standing alongside it—while, sadly, the old parties are in bed with the big mining companies. Together we are a force to be reckoned with. Millions of Australians love the Great Barrier Reef, and together we can protect it from becoming a dumping ground for dredge spoil and a shipping superhighway for the big mining companies to burn the fossil fuels that are cooking this planet and the reef itself.

What is more, in a sign of the madness of the Abbott and Newman governments' coal-at-all-costs approach, the international market is actually helping the cause. The coal price keeps on dropping as more and more countries embrace renewable technology to power their lives sustainably. And this means that the megacoalmines of the Galilee Basin are not only environmentally disastrous but economically risky as well. BHP, Rio Tinto, Anglo American coal and Lend Lease have all pulled out of the Abbot Point coal terminal following low global coal demand, scientific concern and community pressure. Glencore Xstrata scrapped its plans for a coal port at Balaclava Island, in the southern reef, and Mitchell Group, just last week, dropped their plans for the pristine Fitzroy delta. Those big names are pulling out, and it is a clear sign that the world does not want our climate-destroying coal.

And yet even this has not stopped the Abbott and Newman governments ticking off on megacoalmines in the Galilee Basin. These mines would be a climate disaster. They would see more than 100 million tonnes of coal exported through the Great Barrier Reef every year, dramatically increasing Australia's contribution to global climate change, which of course would worsen the plight of the reef further still. In fact, if the Galilee Basin were a country and all of its coal were burnt, it would be the seventh largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world.

There is really so much at stake in our fight to save the reef. It extends to the health of our climate globally and to Queensland's land and water, under threat from those Galilee megacoalmines, and of course the 30,000 to 40,000 coal seam gas wells planned for some of our best food-producing land. Our campaign also represents the growing frustration that so many Australians feel—and it was sadly proven again last night—that the interests of big business and the mining companies are continually being put first by governments that are supposed to represent citizens, not their corporate donors. Our fight to save the Great Barrier Reef is a rallying point for everyone with a shared understanding that the profits of foreign owned coal and gas companies are a poor trade for the irreparable destruction of something so precious and unique that it is integral to our national identity and is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, no less. In Judith Wright's words:

The Reef's fate is a microcosm of the new battle within ourselves. So this is not just a story of one campaign. The human attitudes, the social and industrial forces, and the people who in one way or other take their part in the campaign, represent a much wider field, and one in which the future of the human race may finally be decided.