Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As I rise to speak to this matter of public urgency the southern part of my home state of Queensland is on a catastrophic bushfire alert. 'Catastrophic' is the highest level of warning that can be issued by the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services in anticipation of uncontrollable fires. Twenty-one aircraft as well as firefighters across the state are on standby, and firefighters have this morning been battling a grassfire on the Southern Downs. Just last year, Brisbane saw its second once-in-a-century flood in the space of a few years. For decades, scientists have warned us of the dire consequences of the continued burning of fossil fuels, with successive Labor and coalition governments pushing off the necessary action into the never-never.

We have crossed over from global warming into global boiling. The opening of new coal projects is nothing less than genocidal. The Albanese government is co-signing destruction while swanning about in Rio Tinto merchandise. We should be throwing the kitchen sink at this before we get to the non-stop catastrophic extreme events, before we get to the permanent destruction of our biodiversity and before we get to the loss of millions of lives. Yes, we should be throwing the kitchen sink at this, but instead, the Labor government is continuing to pour fuel on the fire.

The fringe-dwelling deniers are easy to ignore, but we can't excuse those who know better—those who have seen the impacts of climate catastrophes and yet have decided to back-in the opening of more coal mines. Every new coal mine is a nail in our collective coffins, and that is unconscionable.