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

Pacific island leaders are begging Australia to stop opening up new coal and gas mines in its approach to the COP summit, and so they should. Our planet is burning. Our country, this country, stares down the barrel of a fire season catastrophic in its extent. Senator Allman-Payne is with us in the chamber today for the state of Queensland, which is in a catastrophic fire danger moment right now. Yet the first order of business that this government has set out today for this Senate sitting period is the passage of a bill to enable it to host a global meeting ostensibly with the purpose of addressing climate change, and government ministers are currently travelling around the Pacific pressuring leaders of those nations who are at the forefront of the climate crisis to get on board with their bid.

Well, I tell the chamber this morning: I back Pacific island nations in their opposition to Australia hosting COP until it has committed not to dig up another lump of coal or to burn another litre of gas. It is the very least we can do in solidarity with them. The Greens will continue to work in solidarity with Pacific island leaders to build the consensus around transformative climate action that we have heard so clearly from them that they so urgently require of us as a nation and of this government as a self-styled leader.