Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The selfishness, the ignorance and the cowardice that has been displayed tonight in this chamber by the major parties contributing to this debate have disgraced this place. Here is the truth of the moment. We are 10 days out from winter, yet communities across New South Wales and Queensland are burning. And, with each lost house, with each destroyed habitat, there is yet more truth. There is yet more urgency given to the realisation that climate change is putting at risk everything that we care about—our communities, our precious places, our very future. The smouldering remains of the family homes call us to urgent action, yet all we have seen is bickering. All we have seen is the same rehearsed talking points, and we know why. We know why the major parties won't act. It's because you are in the pockets of the coal barons and the gas merchants who are profiting from this destruction. You are bought and paid for. Your silence is their price.

Climate change affects all of us. It will take all of us to stop it. Now is the moment for radical, transformative, collective community action, and, on 20 September this year, young people will once again lead that effort. They will once again lead the Australian community out onto the streets to strike for climate justice, to strike a blow against the Adani coalmine, that disgrace upon the Australian landscape, to strike for 100 per cent renewable energy and to close every coalmine and say, 'No more in this nation.' Together we can and will stop climate change. Together we can and will make its perpetrators pay and create a community where everyone has what they need to live a good life. Together the Australian community will show that it is so much more than the craven cowards that sit in this place. (Time expired)