Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

If anything perfectly demonstrates the corrupted nature of this government, what they truly stand for and what their priorities are, it's this. Today we find out—in the last two days of this 46th Parliament—that Mr Angus Taylor, the so-called 'minister for emissions reductions', is bringing forward regulations before this parliament, before this Senate, to provide $32 million in public funding to a small private enterprise to develop a commercial gas deposit in the offshore Gippsland Basin in Victoria, the so-called Golden Beach Gas Project. This, at the same time that the Barrier Reef is bleaching again—for the fourth time in six years. This, at the same time that our communities are being flooded by extreme weather events; people have died today. Yet what does this government do in their last dying days? They give more money to fossil-fuel companies. They seem to be proud of it. They seem to be rubbing it in our face. They seem to want a fight. Well, they're going to get one.

I'm proud today to single out a few legends who have been travelling in northern Tasmania and around the country trying to get people to understand the dangers posed by the oil and gas industry. In particular, I'd like to do a shout-out to the No Gas Across the Bass crew—Ally King, Ethan Turner, Annie Ford, Alex Wylie, Amelia Cromb, Talon Clemow and Finn Leary—and, from Surfrider Foundation, Damien Cole, Drew Macpherson and Stephany Curley. Thank you for your activism. Thank you for your work. The community have spoken about this right around the country: no more oil and gas drilling in our oceans.