MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (16:13): The tragedy in Nepal is a climate warning written in death and destruction. Of course, the people of Nepal, who are paying such an unbearable price for that tragedy, committed almost none of the emissions that have caused it. Here in Australia, a prime minister, whose government is approving coal and gas projects just as fast as it possibly can, says 'now is not the time' to talk about climate change.
So when does the Prime Minister think it is okay to talk about climate change? When the eastern seaboard of Australia is on fire again, destroying communities and ecosystems, when Brisbane and Lismore are under water again, can we talk about climate change then? When another Australian community is wiped off the map, is that enough time or an appropriate time, according to the PM, to talk about climate change?
When Labor approves another coal or gas mine, are we allowed to talk about climate change then? Labor know exactly what opening new coal and gas projects is doing to our climate, but they approve them anyway. At some stage, when politicians knowingly fuel a crisis that has killed thousands of people just in the last couple of weeks, they have to be called what they are: climate criminals with blood on their hands.
Today, Senator Wong accuses the Australian Greens of playing politics by raising these issues. Of course, climate change is political. Opening new coal and gas mines and approving them as fast as you can is political.
A Labor minister opening the Beetaloo Basin carbon bomb with a goofy smile on her face, which happened last week, is political. Labor members leaving politics to take board positions and consulting gigs with the corporations who are cooking this planet is political. Ignoring climate science so your mates at Santos and Woodside can make more obscene profits for longer is political.
These climate disasters do not arrive through some mysterious force beyond human control. They are being driven by decisions made by governments and made by corporations. Climate change is political.
What Senator Wong wants is the right to express sorrow for victims while demanding silence about the decisions that killed them. We're not going to have a bar of it. (Time expired)