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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Emergency Management (Senator McAllister) to a question without notice asked by Senator Cox today in relation to Murujuga.

I grew up around Karratha and remember very fondly the rocks around Murujuga, where my family and I used to go for picnics. It's a truly special part of our country. In fact, it's globally culturally significant. The answer that Senator McAllister gave to Senator Cox was that the government's taking steps to get a World Heritage listing for the area. Absolutely, this should be listed as national and world heritage, but that's not going to stop the acid rain from emissions from heavy industry in the area destroying this irreplaceable and absolutely priceless First Nations cultural heritage.

Some of the art at Murujuga includes carvings depicting thylacines, Tasmanian tigers, which existed tens of thousands of years ago in the north-west of Western Australia. This is known around the world as the world's largest art site, and the science very clearly tells us, and nobody disagrees with this, that the emissions from the Burrup fertiliser plant and Woodside's gas-processing plant are destroying the desert glass that makes these carvings so unique—the desert glass that has allowed these carvings to survive intact over tens of thousands of years of normal weather in the north-west of Western Australia. But now the desert glass is disappearing because the acid from heavy industry emissions is making it vanish. What a tragedy that would be, not just for First Nations communities who are linked to this area but for all of us and for all of humanity.

The question Senator Cox asked was: will the government stop further development at Murujuga on the Burrup Hub? Right now, we know that the minister, Minister Plibersek, has on her desk before her a decision on whether to extend the Burrup Hub North West Shelf project, which would require the opening up of the Browse Basin and the drilling of Scott Reef, Australia's largest oceanic reef system off the coast of Western Australia. Right now, we're looking at opening one of the biggest carbon bombs this nation has seen in its history. That goes directly to the heart of the damage being done to a priceless cultural treasure on the Burrup Hub at Murujuga.

We'll continue to ask questions about this. I know there are a lot of people in the building today—not just the First Nations mob from this very special area, but also environmentalists and other people—who are campaigning to have this area protected. I would urge senators to look at the facts. I chaired the Senate inquiry into this exact issue nine years ago, and we're still having the same arguments, having the same debates and having questions unanswered. When will we put a stop to heavy industrial development at this extremely sensitive, culturally significant site? We couldn't get an answer out of the government on that today.

Senator Cox was right to raise the impacts that climate change is having on her communities right around this country. We are living in an age where we are witnessing the climate breaking down before our very eyes, and we know that it's decisions made in places like this that are allowing this to happen.

As I mentioned in my adjournment speech last night, we know it's not just the big donors to the Labor and Liberal parties who are facilitating the lack of climate action—in fact, tearing up climate action in this place. It's also the global networks and their decades-long campaign to control our institutions in this parliament. They certainly have control of the Liberal Party. I don't know about the Labor Party, but they don't have control of the Greens. Every day, we will come in here and fight for First Nations communities, fight for climate action and fight for what is right.

Question agreed to.