Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 27 November, from Senator McKim:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

That the Western Australian Government is about to approve Woodside's North West Shelf extension to burn toxic gas until 2070 and Minister Plibersek has to use her power to block it."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with informal arrangements made by the whips.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

That the Western Australian Government is about to approve Woodside's North West Shelf extension to burn toxic gas until 2070 and Minister Plibersek has to use her power to block it.

This is a matter of urgency because Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are about to get a whole lot worse. We know that the fugitive emissions and the burn-off gas from gas production constitute a significant portion of our domestic emissions. That's before you consider the damage that our gas does once it reaches our overseas markets. This matter of urgency today is in regard to the Western Australian government, who is about to approve Woodside's North West Shelf extension in my home state of Western Australia to burn toxic gas until 2070. That's right, folks—2070. Minister Plibersek needs to use her power to block this extension on the North West Shelf.

The Western Australian government are making steps and making promises to the gas industry in Western Australia when we are in a serious fight on climate change. This government consistently claim that they are here to prevent it from escalating, yet we see no climate target for 2035. We see them just standing aside quietly as they're about to let off this climate bomb in my home state of Western Australia. The planet's atmosphere absolutely can't afford any more of this foolish behaviour. The minister for the environment has this power. The Western Australian gas cartel control the government in Western Australia. It is unable to respond to the climate emergency because they won't deal with these issues. They have shown us time and time again in Western Australia that they don't care about the damage to Aboriginal cultural heritage. They don't even care about the climate crisis, because they too have not legislated a climate target.

Currently the Murujuga National Park, which is World Heritage listed or nominated for World Heritage listing, is home to some of Australia's oldest rock art. When we talk about Australia's oldest rock art, we mean the world's oldest rock art. We are custodians of that world history, and the gases that are changing our climate are also destroying the human history that is recorded there. An extension of the North West Shelf project means that these damaging gases will continue to be released at the Burrup Peninsula until 2070. Let me say that again: baking in gas, not as a transition fuel, until 2070. They continue to not just destroy the climate but also destroy our cultural heritage simultaneously. The link between the gas emissions from the Woodside plant also damage those Murujuga rock art sites, and that is well established. In fact, in August of this year, the Friends of Australian Rock Art and other signatories wrote to Premier Roger Cook in Western Australia and the environment minister, Reece Whitby, and the Aboriginal affairs minister, Tony Buti, to raise concerns about the risk to cultural heritage that would result in extension of the North West Shelf gas project run by Woodside, and it fell on deaf ears.

Aside from the disrespect of cultural heritage, this extension project will have a timeline of 2070—an extension of the ecocide that's going to happen at that location. The planet will be cooked. It will be cooked. In the north-west of Western Australia, it will be unlivable by 2040 if we keep on this trajectory of not paying attention to the climate emissions. This is not about energy transition. All of this is happening while Woodside continue to gaslight us to believe that they are delivering gas into the domestic market. What a crock! I urge my constituents in Western Australia to read the fine print. This is not happening, and we are paying higher energy costs in Western Australia than ever before.

With a 2035 target unlikely to be announced by this government before we go to next year's election, we are faced with a failure by the Cook Labor government to speak up for climate and heritage. It's time someone took a stand, and it's up to the minister for the environment to do that. It's up for the minister for the environment to place environmental and cultural protections in place that are required for the North West Shelf. What an amazing, beautiful, sacred, important part of the country, and it's in my home state. The Greens will continue to urge the Minister for the Environment and Water to stand up and block this project.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on this urgency motion moved by the Greens. I agree, it is a matter of urgency, but the urgency has been demonstrated very clearly by Senator Cox, because it is the Greens that are the danger to Australia's economy and to the world's energy security. Let's strip away all of the hyperbole and the rhetoric and have a look at the facts about gas, the North West Shelf, and the company that they continue to demonise and encourage illegal acts against.

Let's have a look at the facts. It is a fact that the Greens' energy policies are reckless, anti-Western Australian and anti-Australia's interests. They are hurting the economy and they are destroying the livelihoods of thousands of hardworking Australians, particularly in our home state of Western Australia. This demonising, with the help of their Environmental Defenders Office—the cat has well and truly been belled on your involvement and the duplicity of your involvement with those organisations.

Let's have a look at some of the facts. Natural gas is a critical part of the energy mix.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Reynolds, if you could resume your seat.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like Senator Reynolds to withdraw that comment in relation to her insinuation of my involvement in—

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cox, I was listening, and I believe it was a reference to the Greens as a party, not to individuals. Senator Reynolds, you may resume.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Natural gas is a fact. It is a critical part of our energy mix. It is powering manufacturing, providing affordable and reliable electricity for Australians and people across the globe. It is stabilising the energy grid alongside intermittent renewable sources. That is a fact; we need gas. As we transition away from coal, we are going to need gas for many decades to come. That is a fact. Natural gas also supports food security globally, and it plays a pivotal role in producing fertiliser such as ammonia and urea, which sustain Australians, but it also provides food security for millions—in fact billions—of people globally.

The coalition supports natural gas development in Australia to strengthen domestic energy security and also in meeting the global LNG demand, which is going to double by 2040. The fact is, with or without Australian gas, it is going to double. If they don't get it from Australia, which produces the cleanest gas in the world, where else will they go? Woodside is a proudly homegrown Australian company, now for many decades headquartered in Perth. The anti-gas rhetoric from the Greens doesn't reduce global demand for gas, but it does—like with coal and now nickel—send the demand elsewhere to countries that do not produce with the same environmental standards, the same human rights standards, the same sustainability standards and the same anti-slavery standards. The Greens, in advocating this again—and what they do with the EDOs and the other organisations whose funds greenwash around the economy and out of sight of the Electoral Commission—are putting this country at risk.

Some of the facts: the North West Shelf has produced more than 6,300 LNG cargo since 1989, which supports regional energy security. This extension will allow existing gas resources to be developed without the need for constructing new processing facilities. That is not something the Greens will ever admit to you—no more new facilities. In 2023 alone, the North West Shelf contributed $1.7 billion to the Australian economy, including more than $1 billion spent in Western Australian businesses, supporting nearly 1,000 jobs. Since 1984 the North West Shelf has contributed $40 billion in federal royalties and excises, delivering lasting benefits to the Australian and to the Western Australian communities. It is critically important to our nation's security.

The North West Shelf project has also underpinned significant regional development, which has benefitted the Pilbara in particular. A just transition is necessary, and what those opposite propose will never bring a just energy transition. If they don't buy their gas and energy from here, they will go to other nations that have appalling human rights records. Woodside's Browse to North West Shelf Project, if approved, will be subject to the most rigorous regulatory and environmental assessments in the world, and compliance is assured like no other country. I'm proud— (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great privilege to stand up here and defend my home state of Western Australia. I did miss my colleague Senator Cox's contribution—

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's a shame.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection. It is a shame. I wish I had, Senator Cox, because last time you made one on this, I had five minutes of absolute fun and pleasure responding, cutting down some of the claims you made. I must be spanked, seriously, for missing it. When you travel into the state of Western Australia, the envy of the nation, you can see the wealth that is flowing. We've got some challenges, make no mistake, but we are so proud of our mining and our gas industries.

I want to make a declaration, because going back to about 1984—just so people can't look it up and have a little cheap crack—I delivered a load of furniture to the first office block in a place called Hearson Cove in Dampier. They told me at the time it was for a company called Woodside. Even back then, 40 years ago, they were creating some opportunities for employment wealth for us furniture-removalist truck drivers. WA's domestic growth is more than twice that of the rest of the country, at 5.3 per cent. We produce almost half of the nation's exports goods, which generate almost $260 billion for this nation. That might be a throwaway line, but let me tell you that's a heck of a lot of money. That's what we do just in WA. It's a little bit ripe and it does irk me a bit when Western Australian senators come in and talk down the economy in Western Australia and the employment opportunities in Western Australia—not only those that are directly employed through Woodside, which is what the motion's about, but also those directly employed through the greater industry, the service industry, the trucking industry that's around and the trades that go with it. We're all part of it as well.

WA's record levels of employment have led to significant real wages growth, which I said earlier that the economic growth and sound economic management delivered by Premier Roger Cook has seen WA's population increase by 94,000. I think we've got one Greens member in the upper house in Western Australia. That's what they were reduced to last time. Us Western Australians, particularly us in the Labor Party, were really excited with the result of the last election, which saw that side over there put down to only two seats in the lower house—a magnificent contribution. I've got to tell you that there are no Greens in the lower house. There's only one Green in the upper house. How he snuck in, I don't know!

A great deal of that sustained economic growth has been driven by our resources sector, which includes gas. If the Greens political party want to continue to criticise and block our gas industry, then they need to explain how they're going to keep energy prices down and replace $5 billion in taxes and royalties paid each year by Woodside.

Honourable senators interjecting—

I know that hurts the Greens, and I love the interaction. I think it's fantastic. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I would love to have this debate on the stump in Western Australia. I would love to see all the workers in Western Australia, the supply chains and the service industry come to listen to Senator Cox and Senator Steele-John pooh-pooh one part of our great state, a massive part of our economy, and jobs that have been delivered—3,000-odd Western Australia jobs in Woodside alone before the flow-on. There's only so much basket-weaving you can do down in Freo—I can say that, because I live just out of Freo. It ain't creating the wealth. It ain't creating the employment opportunities. It's not creating the opportunity for apprenticeships and traineeships, let alone the royalties, and that's to say nothing of the jobs that have been created and supported by all these communities. This is the only sad part: I really wish we were in WA.

When we talk about that, you should expand your views—maybe get out of Perth and head up to Karratha or Dampier. Senator Whish-Wilson, I'll even take you with me. I'll drive you in my car. You bring your surfboard. I tell you what: we'll have a bevvy sitting on the beach, and then you can tell the people in Karratha how much you hate fossil fuels. I have to say this to my dear friend Senator Whish-Wilson and others: you do love the pointy end of the aeroplane. You do love the air-conditioned car. You do love the BMW. You don't ride your pushbikes up there, do you? Oh no. Fossil fuel gets you to work and back; you love it.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens are continuing their war on natural gas, their war on humanity. Gas keeps the lights on when their wind turbines and solar panels aren't working, and that's often. This afternoon, New South Wales is facing blackouts, as wind and solar supplied less than a quarter of energy needs. They're facing blackouts!

With the abundance of coal, oil and natural gas under our feet, Australia is an energy superpower. Hydrocarbon fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—are the energy miracles, the human development miracles, the human progress miracles. Australia is among the top three gas exporters and the top two coal exporters. We are the largest exporter of energy in the world. Now, though, Australia is facing blackouts and energy rationing like we're a Third World country. Thank you!

The New South Wales government has asked households to turn off their air-conditioners, pull the blinds down, turn off the dishwashers and turn off the lights this afternoon. Third World—thank you! Next they'll probably ask everyone to just curl up in the fetal position on the floor. The anti-human greenies are winning. Coal is being shut down, as they want, and this is the result: east coast Australians suffer. You're not going to believe the Greens' brilliant solution to this. Just wait for it. They want to ban gas. Your gas stovetop and hot-water heater are going to be forcibly converted to electric, and you'll be banned from turning them on when wind and solar don't give the grid enough power. You can't make this up!

Think about this: electricity prices are at record highs thanks to solar and wind. They're three times what they used to be—trebled. Now we're having less electricity, because we're relying on solar and wind more, and we're having increased demand, because we're switching from gas to electricity. What will that do to prices? You can't make this up. I guess you don't need to turn your dishwasher on anyway, if you can't turn on your electric cooktop to cook dinner. This is the green dream: no gas, no light, no cooking, no red meat, no fun.

It's the hypocrisy that's the worst part, though. The Greens want to ban us using coal here, yet it's perfectly fine to ship coal over to China. China uses that coal to make wind turbines and solar panels, and our dopey government buys them back off China. We subsidise the Chinese to do it. We subsidise the Chinese to install them and we subsidise the Chinese and other parasitic billionaires and corporations to run them. Who pays for those subsidies? The people who use electricity do. The Greens are fine with that. Buying coal products from China—solar and wind turbines—is fine, but using coal here is not. One Nation says: unleash the resources we have in our country for the benefit of all Australian people. Talk to Queenslanders about the services and infrastructure being built from coal royalties.

China gives token signals about solar and wind, while using coal, nuclear and hydro. China produces 4.5 billion tonnes of coal a year, heading for five billion. They're the world's largest producer by a long way. Australia produces 560 million tonnes, and a lot of our coal is exported. Some of it goes to China, because they can't get enough with their 4.5 billion. India produces around 1.4 billion tonnes of coal—three times what we produce—and buys more from Australia. Why? I'll tell you why. It's because they want what we have: a developed nation, with people living longer, safer, easier, more secure, more prosperous and more comfortable lives. They know the secret to these is affordable hydrocarbon fuels—coal, oil and natural gas. Britain started its climb to development using coal. America continued using coal and added the benefit of using oil and gas. High energy density fuels released us from using animals as beasts of burden, stopped us using slaves and reduced exposure to harsh work conditions and work environments.

Why are hydrocarbon fuels—so powerful, so effective and lifting us to higher standards of living—repeatedly proven around the world? I'll tell you why: high energy density, which lowers unit energy costs—more energy, lower costs. That gives us productivity. That's why coal, oil and natural gas are so important. The largest component of manufacturing costs today is electricity. We are now uncompetitive because our electricity costs are amongst the highest. That hurts jobs. The Greens are antijobs, antidevelopment, anticivilisation and antihuman. Only One Nation will end net zero and pull us out of the UN Paris Agreement to restore affordable secure energy.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, the lickspittles to the fossil fuel corporations are on full view in this place today. The slaves, the sycophants and the puppets to the big fossil fuel corporations come in here to do the bidding of their corporate political donors. Those millions of dollars that flow into the coffers of the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the National Party from big fossil fuel corporations are sure paying off in spades today. We are seeing people come in here and run the lines for the big fossil fuel corporations, which are run by the psychopaths of CEOs who prioritise cooking the planet, and their own personal profiteering and greed, over the future of every living thing on this earth.

It's appropriate to reflect that it's not just in the Senate where people come in and say the quiet things out loud; it's also what goes on behind the scenes in this place. We know from multiple reports last night that the Prime Minister, acting at the behest of the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council, the big polluters, the loggers, the miners and the fossil fuel corporations, has scuppered his own environment minister's attempts to get up a bill that would have at least in some small way improved the situation for our environment. Once again, we are seeing big corporate power and influence—the big polluters—get a win over nature, the environment and climate action.

We are living in a petro state. We are living in a nation where the boardroom of the Business Council of Australia is effectively the third chamber of this parliament—but it wields its power with no accountability, no responsibility and no obligation to the Australian people. The Prime Minister has literally just stomped all over his own environment minister because that's what the big corporate polluters, the miners, the loggers and the fossil fuel corporations told him to do. You know what they call this in a lot of other countries? They call it corruption. Here in Australia, it shows that the big corporate interests, their greed and their profiteering, are what really matters to most people in this place rather than the interests of the people we are put in here to represent, of nature, of climate action and of every living thing on this planet.

The Western Australian government, as we know, is poised to approve Woodside's North West Shelf extension—a massive project that will burn toxic, polluting, planet-cooking gas up to 2070. Minister Plibersek has the authority and the moral responsibility to intervene in that matter, just as she does to intervene to save the maugean skate—an ancient species; there are only about 120 left on the face of the planet—in Tasmania's Macquarie Harbour. And what does Labor do? It parachutes in an announcement from the Prime Minister of $28 million in order to prop up Senator Urquhart's campaign to win the seat of Braddon at the next federal election. That is also, in a lot of countries, what would qualify as corruption. Labor should never have done that ahead of the scientific studies that are still not due for over 12 months.

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

Woodside's North West Shelf project is one of Australia's oldest and dirtiest fossil fuel projects. It was due to be decommissioned in the next decade, but we found out today that the Western Australian government is poised to approve another 50-plus years of gas production on the North West Shelf, primarily to facilitate the Browse project—the biggest fossil fuel project in this nation's history. If that project were approved, not only would it drill precious Scott Reef and impact the biodiversity of Scott Reef, but it would be equivalent to more than 10 years—13 years, on the latest data—of national emissions in one project.

If I were to ask you, senators and Australians listening to this debate, what would be the one word you would use to describe a government approving a fossil fuel project of this magnitude in 2024, at a time less than a week from the last COP, the international get-together for discussing climate change? They've told us we've already passed 1½ degrees of warming—the Paris targets. What would you say if I were to tell you that a government would approve this for a fossil fuel project, for a big company—Woodside Petroleum and their North West Shelf partners? What word would you use to describe that? The word I would use is corruption. How could you describe it as anything but corruption—a corruption of our political process—that big corporations can capture governments because they donate to them and they threaten them and they bully them? It's a corruption of the truth and the science behind climate change that we would somehow have a government that would approve this project, flying in the face of all the evidence that we are told that we need to get out of fossil fuels and stop approving new fossil fuel projects. It's a corruption of trust in our institutions that people trust to make decisions in their best interests. It's a corruption of the livelihoods and health of future generations on this planet—in fact, of generations on this planet today.

We know that there are going to be massive costs coming down the line for not acting on climate. If the Western Australian government goes ahead and approves this project, we know that this federal government can stop it. Sense and reason have to prevail. But, unfortunately, we know that the Prime Minister last night killed any chance of getting proper environmental protection laws in this country, because big corporations were in his office bullying him not to do so. That's who Labor are today.

If you care about the environment and you want to protect the environment, you want action on climate change and you want to stop fossil fuel projects, the best thing you can do in the democracy we have today is vote for the Greens and any candidates who will stand up in this place and do what my colleagues are doing today and say, 'No more fossil fuel projects; we need to get on with dramatically and radically reducing emissions and transitioning to renewable energy.'

The fact that not a single Labor, Liberal or National senator in this debate today has even mentioned climate change is very, very telling. This argument that, somehow, we can't do it for economic reasons was the argument used against the abolition of slavery, and there are some really good parallels, because that's the cost of production—we need slave labour; our whole economy is dependent on it. They're saying the same thing about fossil fuels. It's immoral, and it's going to change at the next election.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The past 24 hours have confirmed what we already knew. Gina Rinehart and the fossil fuel lobby wield more power than the environment minister in this country. Australia is the world's third-largest exporter of fossil fuels, and the WA Labor government is about to approve Woodside's North West Shelf extension to burn toxic gas until 2070.

When both major parties accept donations from the fossil fuel industry, when they accept cushy jobs within the industry after their political careers and when they continue to support new coal and gas projects, signing off on approvals to burn our children's future—all the way out to 2070, in this case—people are rightly angry.

Over the weekend, around 5,000 people, including many Greens members, took part in Rising Tide's blockade of the world's largest coal port, and I joined many of these legends out on the front lawns of parliament today. To the blockade attendees, organisers, volunteers and 180 arrestees I want to say thank you. And to the 14 people under 18 years of age who were arrested standing up for their generation and their future: thank you. Thank you and I'm sorry that the cowards in this parliament would rather see the demise of your future than transition our economy to renewable energy. Shame!

Every new fossil fuel project is costing lives. Every point of a degree of warming will be measured in human suffering. That is the legacy that major political parties will leave this place with. Will our so-called environment minister salvage some power to block Woodside? Probably not. But the Greens will continue fighting alongside you, in this place and on the streets, to protect our planet and our future. With a federal election just months away, it pays to remember that you can't keep voting for the same two parties and expect a different result. If you want change, you have to vote for it.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator McKim be agreed to.