Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

After a week of nonanswers, a week of drivel and a week of excuses, what we now have is the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill 2023, which is going to accelerate and expand the fossil fuel industry by $30 billion worth of investment. Don't take that from me; that's what the resources minister has said herself. This bill is going to supercharge fossil fuel expansion—shamefully—at a time when bushfires are already raging around the country and when people are worried about the climate crisis and how it's impacting on them and their lives right now. We have the Labor Party and the Liberal Party voting together to give another hand up to the fossil fuel industry. It is just ludicrous that we are about to see the passage of a piece of legislation in this chamber today that allows the fossil fuel industry to dump their toxic pollution in the sea, to bury it under the seabed and pretend that somehow it's just going to disappear, 'All good; nothing to see here, folks. Carry on, business as usual,' when the exact opposite is what we should be doing.

All of the world's scientists have told us loud and clear. The world's leading institutions, agencies and organisations are telling governments like the Australian government that, if you want to arrest dangerous global warming, you have to stop the expansion. You can't have any more coal, oil or gas. It all has to be left in the ground.

This bill is an attempt at greenwashing the next phase of the fossil fuel industry. Sadly, it was brought forward by the environment minister herself—a pretence that this was somehow about protecting the environment, when in fact the minister who is desperately trying to get this legislation through is not the environment minister; it is the resources minister. We know who still calls the shots in the Labor Party; it is the fossil fuel rump that sit on the front bench—the fossil fuel rump of the Labor Party only fostered by the fossil fuel dinosaurs in the coalition.

It is just unthinkable. At a time when our planet is on the edge of collapse, when the climate crisis is getting worse, when already across the country dozens of homes have been destroyed because of bushfires and we haven't even hit December, when we are heading into a horror summer, a drier summer, and when we're heading into the next drought, the last thing we should be doing is supercharging the expansion of coal, oil and gas, and yet that's exactly what this bill does.

This bill is going to allow for the expansion of Middle Arm, of Beetaloo, of Barossa—the carbon bombs that are going to cook this planet. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has already said clearly that any more expansion cannot happen if humanity is to grasp, tackle and avoid the very worst of the climate crisis. He has also said that funding this pseudoscience, allowing the excuse of unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage, is simply an effect of the fossil fuel industry having their foot on the throat of government. That is what we've got here today. This is greenwashing at best. It is deception at worst. It is a pathetic attempt by this government to try and push this through under the guise of it being an environmental compromise—that this will help. The only people this is helping is Santos, is Woodside, is INPEX, and we know that because the foreign minister, Senator Penny Wong, herself said it. This bill has nothing to do with reducing pollution. This bill has nothing to do with protecting our environment. It has nothing to do with the interests of the broader Australian community. It is all about protecting the $30 billion on the line from the fossil fuel industry, the very same companies that continue to donate and support both sides in this chamber.

This is a collusion tonight from the Labor Party and the Liberal coalition, a collusion to deliver for their fossil fuel mates. That's all this is. It's a disgrace. The Greens have fought hard to stop this bill. We've lined up with our crossbench colleagues. Senator David Pocock has done a fantastic job. And I want to pay respect to our Greens colleague Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who stood here asking the basic questions of the minister last week and getting no answers, only then to have Senator McAllister thrown under the bus by the foreign minister when she came in and belled the cat. This has got nothing to do with reducing pollution. It's all about delivering for Santos, for Woodside, for INPEX and for those fossil fuel interests in the Korean and Japanese governments. This isn't about Australia, folks. This is about the Labor Party looking after the gas cartel and their fossil fuel mates, and it is a disgrace.

I'm sorry we haven't been able to stop it. This is the job we've been sent to do—to stand up and to call this rubbish out. It's called 'sea dumping' for a reason. The sea dumping bill will allow toxic carbon pollution to be dumped under the sea in a pretence that somehow this will make climate change go away. What an absolute sick joke! The bill should be rejected.