Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

People might not realise it, but there is no requirement to even think about the impact on the climate when the environment minister has to decide whether to approve or refuse new coal, oil or gas projects. It sounds insane, doesn't it? That's what our environmental laws, written in 1999, when then Prime Minister John Howard was in charge, say. Twenty-three years ago it was decided—and it hasn't been changed since—that the environment minister didn't have to think about the climate when they were ticking off on anything, including coal and gas mines. It is utterly ridiculous.

I say this as a former environmental lawyer. I was an environmental lawyer before coming to this place, and I've been involved in several court cases that have tried to fix this. I want to pay tribute to all of the other community members and environment groups who have continued to challenge this patently ridiculous notion through the courts and have, sadly, been largely unsuccessful. Just last week, we saw the environment minister stand not with the community or the environment but with the coalmining companies and argue against the fact that she should think about the climate when she ticks off on yet more coalmines.

We've seen five new coalmines approved so far under this new Labor government, who promised to be different to the last government. Many of these new coalmines are in my home state of Queensland and will turbocharge those bushfires that have already started. I'm getting SES warnings every day and it strikes fear into my heart, as I'm sure it strikes fear into anybody's heart who has gone through the bushfires or the floods—any of these turbocharged natural disasters—that we've seen in the last few years. We've got the IPCC, the International Energy Agency, our Pacific neighbours and everybody saying, 'No new coal, oil and gas.' We can't keep warming to 1.5 degrees. We are threatening the livelihood and the very existence of not only human settlements but also our precious biodiversity.

Nature is meant to have an ally in the environment minister. But, I'm sorry; we do not have that in our current environment minister. When she stands with coalmining companies rather than with nature, it's just heartbreaking. So do better. We need a climate trigger in our environmental laws. We needed one 23 years ago. We definitely need one now. Usually, it's something that says you've got to consider an impact on something that's internationally or nationally significant. We think the climate trigger should say, 'You just can't approve new coal, oil and gas.' But we're open to the conversation.

At the moment, the environment minister is legally allowed to ignore the impacts on the climate. What they're not ignoring are the political donations made by the fossil fuel companies that flood into the coffers of both of the large parties in this place. We need to stop approving new coal and gas mines and we need these two parties to stop taking the money from the coal, oil and gas companies.