Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Shoebridge. Indeed. I do want to credit one of my actual heroes in life for first using that phrase. That was Peter Cundall, one of the greatest leftists this country has ever seen. Peter Cundall was of Gardening Australia fame. Vale, Peter. He would be so proud to be described in this place as one of the greatest leftists this country has ever seen. I'm absolutely certain in saying that.

I'm going to pinch my nose and vote for these bills. But mark my words: the Greens are not going to settle for something that's simply better than nothing. We won't be settling for this. We will push Labor all the way. We will push them in relation to their blind addiction to fossil fuels. We will push them in relation to their blind addiction to logging native forests in this country. We'll do that because we are going to stand on the side of humanity; we're going to stand on the side of nature; and we're going to stand on the side of the environment. And we're going to stand against those psychopaths and big corporations who profit from destruction, and we will stand against the political parties they have in their collective pockets.

To the centralists, the centrists and the incrementalists who exist not just in the press gallery but, unfortunately, in some environment and climate groups in this country as well I say this: imagine if over the last few years you'd spent as much time cheering on the Greens as you did cheering on the Labor Party. Imagine over the last few years if you had spent as much time urging the Labor Party to increase its climate ambition as you'd spent urging the Greens to decrease our climate ambition. Just imagine how much better this legislation would be if you had taken those actions over the last few years instead of crab-walking into the centre and urging incrementalism on the body politic in this country. Just imagine the kind of future you could have actually worked to achieve for your children and your grandchildren. Imagine the better life and the better world you could have helped build, and imagine the better legislation you could have helped craft if you'd taken those actions. But, instead, you let mediocrity be the enemy of the good. I say to you all: do better next time.