Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians have around 100 days before this nation goes into one of the most important federal elections, if not the most important, in this country's history. For those Australians who care about the future and future generations of this country, about the environment, about our oceans and about climate action, this is it. This is your opportunity to cast a vote for climate action by voting Greens. We look at the record temperatures we've seen in Western Australia this summer—just another summer of record temperatures. But did we notice that, off the coast of Sydney and at the Great Barrier Reef, we had the warmest water temperatures ever recorded in history, another record from burning fossil fuels?

I'm proud to be part of a party that is keeping it very simple this election. We need to stop all new fossil fuel development in this country, and that's why our leader, Adam Bandt, made it very clear to the national media this week that that is going to be our ask in the next parliament. The Greens will be introducing a 'fight for our coastlines' bill that will do exactly that. Last year, 80,000 square kilometres of our ocean was handed over by this government for more exploration and more oil and gas drilling, putting our coastlines at risk. The Greens will be introducing this bill as soon as we can. I am once again proud to be standing up for coastal communities and those who love our oceans right around this country and saying that, at this time in history, we have no time left to waste before taking the strongest possible action on reducing our emissions, phasing out and ending all fossil fuel exploration and doing the right thing for future generations of this country. (Time expired)