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senate vote 2024-10-08#2
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-10-13 08:19:56
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Title
Matters of Urgency — Climate Change- Matters of Urgency - Climate Change - Three new coal mines
Description
<p class="speaker">Sue Lines</p><p>I inform the Senate that I have received the following letter, dated 8 October 2024, from Senator McKim:</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2024-10-08.108.2) introduced by South Australian Senator [Sarah Hanson-Young](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/sarah_hanson-young) (Greens) on behalf of Tasmanian Senator [Nick McKim](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/tasmania/nick_mckim) (Greens), which means it failed.
- ### Motion text
- > *That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:*
- >
- > *The Albanese Government is fuelling the climate and extinction crises by approving three coal mines that will destroy hundreds of hectares of threatened species habitat and lock in 1.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution out until the 2060s.*
<p class="italic">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:</p><p class="italic">The Albanese Government is fuelling the climate and extinction crises by approving three coal mines that will destroy hundreds of hectares of threatened species habitat and lock in 1.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution out until the 2060s."</p><p>Is consideration of the proposal supported?</p><p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p><p>With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with informal arrangements made by the whips.</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The Albanese Government is fuelling the climate and extinction crises by approving three coal mines that will destroy hundreds of hectares of threatened species habitat and lock in 1.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution out until the 2060s.</p><p>I rise to speak in this debate. Of course, we've seen many promises made by the Albanese government in relation to things that they would do during their time in charge of this nation's laws and, time and time again, what we see is that, when it comes to the environment, when it comes to nature, when it comes to climate, they continue to break those promises over and over again.</p><p>Despite the fact that this government has promised to stop further extinctions of our precious wildlife and stop making the climate crisis worse, last week we saw this country's environment minister approve the expansion of coalmines, including a coalmine directly hosted on the land of critical koala habitat. Koalas in this country are facing extinction, and I say this very solemnly and very clearly on the same day that our environment minister is hosting a global summit here in Australia about the need to be nature positive.</p><p>Well, let me tell you that there is nothing nature positive about killing koalas. There is nothing nature positive about making the climate crisis worse by making more fossil fuel pollution. There is nothing nature positive when it comes to native forest logging. There is nothing nature positive about clearing and bulldozing hectare after hectare of critical koala habitat. It is an absolute international disgrace that this government has the gall to host a global summit called 'nature positive' while, in the same week, destroying and allowing the destruction of koala habitat and our environment.</p><p>The world loves Australia's koalas. The world knows that the koala is a symbol of the unique biodiversity of Australia. Koalas symbolise our forests, our coastline and our connection with land and country, yet we have the environment minister signing off on the destruction, because the laws don't stop her. The laws allow the environment minister to agree that a big coal company can come and bulldoze precious woodland and native forest to make way for more fossil fuels at the expense of our wildlife and our environment.</p><p>What on earth is going on in this government? On one hand you've got the environment minister saying that she wants Australia to be a leader when it comes to being nature positive; on the other hand you've got the Prime Minister, whenever he can get a chance, taking his jet over to WA to tell Gina Rinehart and the fossil fuel industry that they can keep going hell for leather. Dig more, burn more, make more profit—at the expense of our environment, at the expense of our climate, and at the expense of Australia's international reputation.</p><p>This nature positive summit should be called 'nature negative'. It's been a flop, and it's been a flop because this government does not have the courage of its convictions and won't do what is needed. Our environment laws are so terribly broken that they allow loggers to keep on logging native forest, despite the swift parrot. They allow loggers to keep logging, despite the danger to koalas. They allow coalmines and gas mines to open and expand at a time when world scientists say that we can't keep having more.</p><p>These laws allow big companies to ride roughshod over the rights of Indigenous and First Nations communities. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Jonathon Duniam</p><p>As ever, I am delighted to be able to contribute to this debate today, one that reeks of hypocrisy and with all sorts of falsehoods being peddled again in this place, trying to whip up Australians into a sense of alarm and feeling like the world is about to end tomorrow. It's just madness to suggest, based on everything we have just heard, that this motion in any way should be supported today. Frankly, to put in a silo consideration of environmental impact on any development to the exclusion of economic and social impacts is bad policymaking and bad decision-making. The coalition, for one, doesn't think that's the right approach. But if you were to read this motion and follow it through to its natural conclusion and we didn't have coalmines or any other developments taking place I just wonder what sort of economic impact there would be. I wonder what would it mean for jobs, power prices and the hospitals that rely on energy to actually do what it is they need to do. I don't think that comes into the considerations of the Australian Greens when they move these motions.</p><p>It's interesting, though. We read this motion and it talks about this terrible, dastardly Albanese government:</p><p class="italic">… fuelling the climate and extinction crises by approving 3 coal mines that will destroy hundreds of hectares of threatened species habitat and lock in 1.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution out until the 2060s.</p><p>Why didn't they move such a motion when the dastardly Albanese Labor government decided to roll out 28,000 kilometres of high-tension electricity power networks across our countryside, removing hillsides of natural vegetation and depriving these poor koalas of their habitats that these powerlines will remove, or when wind farms scraped the tops off mountains when they were put in place? Oh, I know why—it's okay to do it for certain projects but not others. It's a bit like when the rather less-than-impressive Premier of Victoria said, when the environment minister rightly knocked on the head the port terminal in the Port of Hastings for the offshore wind zone, that the Labor government in Victoria will stop at nothing to get this wind farm built, even if—and this was the reason the port terminal was knocked on the head—the port is built in a Ramsar listed wetland, a fragile part of the world. But, according to that premier in Victoria, a Labor premier, it doesn't matter if we trash the planet to save the environment. What hypocrisy! There are people in this place who have responsibility for environmental impacts who have themselves overseen the destruction of the environment, which is why I use the word 'hypocrisy'. Nothing reeks of hypocrisy more than people who are willing to support a motion of this nature but turn a blind eye to their own activities. Honestly!</p><p>But, again, I'll come back to this general proposition. We've a country where the economy is slowing, where jobs are hard to secure, where the cost of living is out of control and where the cost of doing business and being able to make ends meet, frankly, is not in any way competitive with elsewhere around the world. We then have these motions which would, as I said before, taken to their natural conclusion, just drive up the cost of doing business. If it becomes more expensive to do business in this country, the jobs in those businesses will be less secure. When jobs are less secure and people don't have take-home pay that they can rely on, they struggle to pay their mortgage, they can't pay their power bills and they can't keep food on the table.</p><p>This is the problem with this sort of thinking. It's great to be paid every fortnight by the taxpayer and not worry at all about what regular Australians out there who don't have the same benefits are dealing with. That's what this motion is all about—turning a blind eye to the real-world problems that Australians, be they business owners, mums and dads or ordinary Australians, and most households are dealing with. Not once in that contribution from the Australian Greens, the movers of this motion, did we hear any reference to 'cost-of-living crisis'. Not once did we hear any reference to bringing down the cost of electricity. The reason why is that they don't care about those issues. Ideologically, they pursue these ones, with no regard for what impact they would have on a regular Australian household. So I say to most Australians: understand that, when we vote against these motions, we are doing it in your interests.</p> <p class="speaker">Anne Urquhart</p><p>The government rejects this motion from the Greens. Our government has extended three existing operations. These are not new projects. Our government will continue to consider each project on a case-by-case basis and against the safeguard mechanism. This is the emissions reduction policy that the Greens political party voted for, the policy about which Senator Hanson-Young said, 'Because of this policy, emissions will go down, not up.' Minister Plibersek was the first Australian minister in history to block a coalmine. She blocked Clive Palmer's big Queensland coalmine that could have leaked pollution into the Great Barrier Reef. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, is responsible for the safeguard mechanism.</p><p>I understand, when some in this place focus on individual projects, they miss the big picture, and the big picture here is a massive shift in our sources of energy and our economy. The sad truth is that, when the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens political party teamed up to delay climate action, it put renewables way behind. I understand why the Greens political party are sensitive. The Greens might regret teaming up with the Liberals to kill off Labor's carbon pollution reduction scheme. The Greens might regret that teaming up with the Liberals led to $80 million extra tonnes of carbon pollution. The Greens might regret teaming up with the Liberals to put renewables years behind. And, if the Greens want action on renewables, they should point out that nuclear is a diversion, a guarantee of more coal for longer.</p><p>The good news is we, over on this side, the Labor government, are working overtime to catch Australia up. Under Labor, we will see 40 per cent of our power come from renewable sources this year. The environment minister is ticking off renewable energy projects at record rates. Our government has green lit 63 renewable projects in just over two years, enough to power over seven million Australian homes. We also have record numbers of renewable energy projects in the approval pipeline. To deliver cheaper power bills and cleaner energy for Australians the best thing everyone in this place can do is back Labor's renewable energy boom.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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