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

I've got no idea what that was—no idea. But what it does show is that One Nation are always slow to catch up, aren't they? Always slow to catch up. I know there was a lot of chuckling in the chamber as Senator Roberts was speaking. Through the chair: we weren't laughing with you, mate; we were laughing at you. That's what was going on.

No one actually—except, perhaps, Senator Canavan—thinks this is indeed funny. What we've seen here tonight is the defence of the gas industry from this side of the chamber doing the bidding of the big gas companies, the big gas cartel. They just can't help themselves, can they? They've come in here, scurried in here tonight. They've been given their marching orders to stand up for the big gas cartel and the big gas corporations. That's what they've done. And they can't handle it. They can't handle that, in this place, what we are trying to do is make sure that national environment laws are not bypassed, that there are no loopholes, that, if you want to frack in the Northern Territory or frack in the Beetaloo, you have to get an environmental approval before you go and poison people's water. That is what the amendment put forward in this bill will do today—make sure there is scrutiny of these big fracking projects and make sure that companies can't just have free reign over big areas of the Australian country and farmland.

Over and over and over again, I have heard from farmers in the Northern Territory that they are sick and tired of being rolled over and told to sit down and shut up by the big gas companies. Over and over again. They are worried about the quality of the water in their communities. They're worried about the impact that fracking is going to have on groundwater in their local area. They are worried that gas companies are allowed to just start fracking without any national environmental approval. It's 2023, people. We're in a climate crisis, and all we get right now is gas companies thinking they can call the shots. Well, no more. No more. Under these amendments, gas corporations are going to be held to account. There are going to be no more loopholes. Santos, I'm sure, are not happy, and I'm sure Tamboran are not happy. But, of course, over and over and over again, we see members of the National and Liberal parties come in here to do the bidding of the big gas cartel. They know who their mouthpieces are in this place, and it's this lot over there.

Opposition senators interjecting—

You just can't—this lot just can't handle it, can they? There is not an environmental protection that doesn't upset them. There is not a piece of environmental law that doesn't rile them up. There is not a piece of environmental protection or a piece of nature that these guys don't want to bulldoze. There is not a piece of nature in this country they don't want to frack. There is not a piece of nature or wilderness in this area that they don't want to log. They want to knock it down, dig it up, burn it—that's all they're good for, over and over again: 'Look, here's our big plan: we're just going to trash everything. Let's just trash everything. Let's burn it, let's dig it up, let's knock it down, let's bulldoze it.' It doesn't really matter what wildlife is left over, it doesn't matter what the condition of the habitat is, and the state of our climate doesn't matter to them; they're a bunch of shills for the gas industry and fossil fuel companies. They can't stand environmental protection in any form. They want to be able to log, dig and burn wherever they can, and it's a time we put a stop to it. That is why the Greens are standing here today—to amend this bill to put some standard of environmental protection in our law to make gas companies have to explain themselves to their local communities, to the landholders, to the farmers and to the traditional owners in areas like the Beetaloo.