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

Just before I rolled in here, I got off the phone with a mate of mine in the eastern suburbs of Perth. He said to me, 'Jordon, there's ash fallen over the house.' None of us here can imagine what it is like to be in that situation. None of us can imagine it. We're in this place; it's air conditioned. We're all safe. It's fine. Meanwhile, right now, people are losing their homes. We don't know—they could be fighting for their lives. We know that at least 30 homes have been lost—probably more. We know that families will be bunking with each other, having packed everything in the car and gotten out of there as quickly as they could. They will now be confronting the beginnings of a truth that their lives have changed forever, that they will never quite be the same again.

As they begin that understanding, that reconciliation with the truth, that realisation, the major parties in this place should be confronting truths of their own: the truth that climate is making these events worse; the truth that the burning of coal, oil and gas is the largest contributor to global heating; and the truth that the policies of Australian governments, Liberal and Labor alike, have done nothing but make the situation worse, have done nothing but burn more of these chemicals, have done nothing but block global action.

They may well look to this place for that truth, but they will not find it. They will not find it among the Labor and Liberal parties here today. Why? Because both sides of parliament take money from the polluters—from the Chevrons and the Woodsides, from the Clive Palmers and the Gina Rineharts. This place, on the question of climate, is bought and paid for by the big end of town, which is making money off a climate crisis. So it is only the Greens, at moments like these, that are willing to state the truth: that climate change is putting lives at risk; that coal, oil and gas are driving it; and that it is possible to stop it with government action—rapid action which we must take now.