Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Advertisements intend to build positive attitudes, emotion and connection with products and with companies. Corporations seek out sponsorship opportunities as part of their marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, fossil fuel companies are no different. As the Australian Greens spokesperson on resources, a proud Western Australian and a long-suffering Fremantle Dockers fan, it pains me how these worlds actually collide. Woodside Energy's merger with BHP's oil and gas assets makes it one of the 10 biggest independent energy production companies in the world. Its 9.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions make it the ninth highest emitter in Australia for 2021.

The Fremantle Dockers have had a very long relationship with Woodside Energy. In fact, Woodside Energy has been the major sponsor of the Dockers since 2010. They signed on to support the Dockers AFLW team in 2017. This sponsorship deal was renewed last year in October and is worth approximately $2 million. I am not the only purple-scarf wearer who doesn't want Woodside's climate-wrecking hands all over my footy team. Former Dockers player and my cousin Dale Kickett stood with former manager Gerard McNeill alongside former Premier Carmen Lawrence, award-winning author Tim Winton, Nobel Prize winner and climate scientist Bill Hare, and former climate change adviser to Woodside Alex Hillman at a press conference last month to call for an end to Woodside's sponsorship of our beloved club.

Fossil fuels have absolutely no place in sport while this climate is in crisis. I echo the high-profile Australians who do not want the Dockers' good name to be used by a corporation to enhance its reputation when its massive profit-making activities are threatening our environment, our health and our cultural heritage. Players, members and supporters are speaking out because that's what they actually care about—they care about the planet. They don't want athletes branded with fossil fuel logos, granting social license to operate in our communities. State capture is in fact real. Both of my colleagues, Senator Thorpe and Senator Faruqi, have outlined this. When Rio Tinto actually blew up the Juukan caves, they lost their sponsorship deal with the AFL; this shows that it's not about commercial risk and it's not about the money.

There are other notable athletes that have spoken out about the injustices in sports sponsorship, and they have also been named by my colleagues. The Australian test and one-day international captain, Pat Cummings, recently urged Cricket Australia to look for other, ethical sponsors. Proud Noongar woman and sister Donnell Wallam challenged Netball Australia about their multimillion dollar contract with Hancock Prospecting because of racism—not because of the history of the company and what they think they've done for black people in this country, but because of the racism that exists and that is history. She won and she made a spectacular debut days later, and I thank them for their leadership. I ask those in this place to follow their lead.

We can't continue to tackle the climate crisis if we are opening up new coal and gas projects, and there are currently 114 of those new coal and gas projects in the investment pipeline. If fossil fuel companies won't back off and put our health, the health of our children and the health of our environment before their profits, their power and their influence, then we as the parliament need to intervene in the same way as we did with big tobacco—stopping them from plastering their toxic brands everywhere they please.

We are out of time. The CSIRO State of the climate 2022report released today tells us that Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.47 degrees since the national records began. The Paris Agreement requires us to keep that temperature below 1.5 degrees, and we are already heading to the point of no return. If you don't believe in doing everything that it takes to secure a future for our children on this planet, then you don't deserve a seat in this place.

Opening up new coal and gas projects will blow the emissions reduction target that Labor have already agreed to legislate in this place. In particular, opening up Woodside's Scarborough project alone will blow these targets. We need a moratorium on new coal and gas, and we need to ban fossil fuel sponsorships for sporting teams, organisations and events. It's time to stop the greenwashing of fossil fuel companies who are misleading the Australian public about their climate credentials.