Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

With Antarctic sea ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter, the hottest global month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves across the northern hemisphere and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, the United Nations Secretary-General has declared that the world is boiling. The urgency of this escalating crisis requires urgent and profound action from all global leaders, including Australia's Labor Government that must commit to no new coal and gas and an immediate end to native forest logging.

I rise to share the sentiments that so many people in Australia and around the world are feeling, a dreadful fear—fear about the climate crisis we are in: the fires, the extreme heat, the droughts, the floods which worsen every single year. The globe isn't just warming up anymore; it is cooking. We are in the era of global boiling, and, yes, it is as terrifying as it sounds. With Antarctic ice the size of Western Australia missing this winter, July being the hottest month ever recorded, extreme fires and heatwaves ravaging the northern hemisphere and record Atlantic Ocean temperatures, the unambiguously apocalyptic climate warnings that scientists, the United Nations and the other experts and agencies have been sounding are actually being realised. There is also anger—a deep anger—at this government's arrogance and refusal to take the urgent and profound action needed in the midst of this absolute emergency. People are crying out for urgent action, for us to do so much better as a country on climate, to lead the world in climate action and to fight with everything that we've got to give our planet and our children the chance of a livable future that they so deserve.

Coal and gas are fuelling this extreme climate crisis, and Australia is one of the biggest exporters of fossil fuels. While the globe boils, what is Labor doing? It's turning up the temperature by opening new coal and gas. They are making it worse, with the Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, giving the tick of approval to three climate bombs just this year. That's right—Labor aren't just letting us careless coast along towards climate collapse. No, they are actively driving us there. If this insatiable appetite to dig up coal and gas continues, there are predictions that our planet could catastrophically warm but 1.5 degrees as early as 2027—that's just four years away—bringing on the irreversible collapse of ecosystems. What we are seeing in the northern hemisphere now will hit Australia this summer.

Why is Labor wilfully ignoring all the signs, the code reds, the flashing lights and the blaring sirens? Is it just a lack of courage stopping them from taking the profound action that is needed? Unfortunately, it is worse than just a lack of foresight or courage. It's much more sinister. Labor know full well the inadequacy of their responses, but they are so beholden to the climate wrecking, morally bankrupt fossil fuel corporations who fill their pockets with dirty donations that they don't care. The Labor Party are held to ransom by their buddies in big coal and gas—companies who, by the way, pay next to no tax and are using oppressive SLAPP suits to silence activists alerting us to the climate emergency. They would rather the planet boil than stand up to these companies and risk their own coffers.

Australia's coal and gas are causing climate disasters everywhere. It is our neighbours in the Pacific and indigenous people and people of colour in the global south who are on the front line and who will be most harmed by the climate crisis, but they have contributed the least to global emissions. They have been sounding the alarm at every international forum for decades, and yet leaders of rich countries like Australia and the global north have ignored their pleas for climate justice. I have just returned from Pakistan after seeing my ammi. Australia's criminal inaction on climate is deeply felt there—felt in the extreme heat, felt in the melting glaciers washing away entire villages and felt in the everyday life of children in Pakistan who are suffocating in an ever deadly mix of intense heat and trapped pollution.

We must also remember to lift our gaze. We must start a process of making climate reparations to the global south countries who are most harmed by Australia's contribution to the climate crisis. This is not charity but compensation for harms that Australia continues to directly cause and Australia now has an opportunity to redress. It is time to take real action on climate. Labor must commit to an immediate end to native forest logging. The Prime Minister and Labor must stop approving new coal and gas projects and push the world to do the same. That is the kind of leadership we demand from Australia.