Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I want to take a moment to place on the record exactly what the government is up to here. In an age when the very climate of this planet is breaking down around us, when over a million species are hurtling towards extinction, and when we are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis and a climate emergency, this government is now deliberately criminalising people who wish to mobilise protesters who want to protest against clear-felling native forest. They want to criminalise the work of environment groups who might wish to organise an on-the-ground blockade against a forestry operation that will ultimately strip-mine our native forests, destroy biodiversity and release massive amounts of carbon. Minister, if you can't hear or feel the social contract starting to crack and erode under your feet, you are simply not paying close enough attention.

The social contract is what underpins the institutions of our democracy. It is what gives effect to the public trust that is placed in parliaments, and governments, to make wise decisions for the common good. And it is actions like these, where you deliberately criminalise people who are acting for the common good, who are acting for generations as yet unborn, who are acting for voiceless animals—they can't speak for themselves—that erode the social contract. If you can't feel that happening, Minister, as I said, you are simply not paying close enough attention.

I'll make a prediction here. Over the next couple of decades, you are going to see mass civil disobedience in this country that will dwarf anything we have previously seen in Australia. You will see massive numbers of people taking to the streets, and you know what? They're not going to care what the law says, because they've got a higher purpose: to deliver a sustainable, livable planet for their children and their grandchildren. By enacting laws like this, you are committing a climate crime, you are committing crimes against humanity, and I hope you answer for them one day, Minister.

Senator Duniam interjecting—

You can look around at your staff and have a cackle all you like; I don't care. I don't care, Minister. I want it on the record that I believe you to be a climate criminal and I hope you pay the price for it one day—and you, too, Senator Duniam, for what it's worth.

Minister, my question is about whether creators of games like Pokemon GO might find themselves in breach of this legislation. Now, I've read the explanatory memorandum, so I'm not asking you to read that back to the parliament. The explanatory memorandum is a matter of public record. I've read it closely. But it does in my view throw up some questions—because I'll put it on the record here, Minister, that I genuinely believe that, in your haste and your shoddy drafting of this legislation, you have created at least the possibility that the creators of games like Pokemon GO will be caught under the incitement provisions of this legislation. So, Minister, is it true that you believe that the inclusion of the element of 'recklessness' would inoculate the creators of games such as Pokemon GO against the provisions of this legislation?