Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of my colleague's motion that is currently before the Senate. I want to be clear from the get-go that Middle Arm is in fact the dirtiest petrochemical hub and will put First Nations petroglyphs at risk in Middle Arm. This issue has already been raised with the minister. It'll also put health at risk, and Senator Pocock and Senator Hanson-Young have already articulated that with the doctors that were in the building today. There was an open letter to the Prime Minister around the health of people who are going to be living in that immediate area. We'll have our own cancer alley, and we have heard the concerns of people who live within a five-kilometre radius of Middle Arm. They will have a 30 per cent higher risk of leukaemia. I can tell you now that First Nations people in Larrakia country don't need that extra 30 per cent if we are to close the gap. We already have our own statistics that are unacceptable in this country. Everyone on all sides of this chamber and in the other place stands and talks about how we're going to close the gap, and yet they will continue to put the environment and the climate at risk.

Tamboran have been very clear that Middle Arm is key for the export of gas from the Beetaloo Basin. They have pushed ahead against the wishes of traditional owners, against the wishes of farmers and against the wishes of the climate science that is very clear. Also, the Northern Territory government have already said that they have a commitment not to proceed with any fracking until all the recommendations of the Pepper inquiry are fully implemented, which is a blatant lie now, because they're pushing ahead. They're continuing to ignore, and it's all about money. It's all about these so-called jobs that people are going to have. I ask those opposite: how many mob are going to work on those jobs? Not many. Do you know why? It's because they figured out the climate science. They know that they cannot work on projects that go against the cultural and spiritual connection to country. Yet we are here talking about the $1.5 billion that the Middle Arm project has and Tamboran have said is for the export of gas from that terminal. That is contrary to what Senator McDonald would have you believe, because we know—and Senator Pocock has also spoken about this—that the PRRT system in this country is broken.

The tax system is broken. The tax credits that exist mean that a nurse in this county pays more tax than the gas cartels, and the gas cartels, in the words of Minister Husic from the other place, are who they are. They don't want any of those caps on their gas because they are benefitting from the Ukraine war, from the misery in what is happening there. And we are being targeted because we are not paying attention to the environmental and social governance that should exist in this country. It should exist, but it does not. Everybody in this place from the two major parties is looking the other way right now. With their heads down, they're not looking at anybody because the gas corporations have told them they can make billions of dollars from sending our climate destroying gas overseas, by offloading it. On top of that, the documents that have been made public in this place show that Labor knew this funding would be used to expand the gas industry. But do you know what? Again, they look the other way because they're funding it anyway. They took up where these guys left off, just to make sure there was a seamless transition.

They are knowingly making the climate crisis worse. They were elected saying: 'We'll go in there and we will solve this. The climate wars will be over.' But they are also knowingly destroying or going to destroy the remaining First Nations rock art in the city of Darwin, in Larrakia country, while in this place we're talking about cultural heritage being impacted by industry. There are senior Larrakia people that have told me that this artwork that exists right there is priceless for their mob, and it should be considered priceless and a part of Australia's history. Both the Northern Territory and the federal governments have failed to even follow any cultural protocols at a state level or at a federal level in relation to consulting with the Larrakia people.

Earlier today I commended to the Senate a bill to protect the spirit of sea country, sea country that will be affected by the Barossa gas field. It will be affected, and it will pipe gas 200 kilometres down the road to Darwin, into Middle Arm. This is what is going to happen, and this is all happening on the back of the destruction of Juukan Gorge. I was a member of the northern Australian committee, which did two reports. The first one was titled Never again. When you say, 'Never again,' it means you shouldn't do it. Never again are we going do that, and yet here we are. We are at a place where we continue to see examples of industrial development, including in my home state of Western Australia with the ancient rock art in the Burrup Peninsula. This peninsula is being placed at risk by industry, by the promise of all this wonderful money that is going to come from all of this. There's no point in having money if no-one's going to be there to enjoy it. They won't be there because you're going to kill everyone off.

We need to hear from traditional owners about how this project could impact their cultural heritage, their country, their environment and their biodiversity, and if the government won't allow that to happen, we will continue to pursue it in this place. As Senator Hanson-Young said, this is the place of scrutiny where we should be asking those important questions. The Greens have been pushing for an inquiry into Middle Arm for quite some time now. Labor have already backfllipped once on this, so we're giving them a chance to do the right thing and to let traditional owners know they can be heard when they speak about the true nature of this project. They are already telling us they have concerns. They're already saying to us, 'We want to have a conversation about what else we should know.' We know why this government doesn't want that. It's because they don't want their greenwashing to be exposed. They absolutely don't want that because, whilst they're saying that the climate wars are over and we're all playing nice, they're over there handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to fossil fuel companies and continuing to approve new coal and gas projects in this country. And they are pushing for this dirty, climate-destroying industrial petrochemical hub in Darwin Harbour to go on.

This government knows that if we do talk to people like traditional owners—in the year of the Voice, when we're standing here talking about how important their voices are and that their voices must be heard—we will hear from them that their voices have not been heard, that nobody has consulted with them and how this project is not sustainable. It is those traditional owners from Larrakia country who've been sustaining this—for over 65,000 years of continuing culture they've been protecting their land and their sea country. We'll also hear that the project is not clean. There's not free, prior and informed consent from those living close by. The government do not want their own mistruths to come to light and for their greenwashing to be laid out on the table again for everyone to see. That's why they are blocking this and choosing to get back into bed with the opposition.

But the Greens are committed to showing what this project is really about and the impact that this project will have, as Senator David Pocock has already said, not just now but for generations of our children and grandchildren, and not just in Darwin on Larrakia country, not just in the Beetaloo basin and the Barossa, and not just in my home state, with the Scarborough project on the Burrup Peninsula, but all over the world.

You are setting a precedent by blocking the questions that this inquiry could ask and the impact that we will expose if the inquiry is allowed to proceed. The Australian public have the right to know about the impact of what's happening in their backyard. If you listen to those opposite you'll hear them say: 'Oh, yes, people want jobs. They want to reap the benefit.' Come on, people! They also want to know about the health impact and how this affects their children. As a mother of two daughters, I would like to know what was going on in my backyard if this petrochemical hub was being opened. I'm not a doctor and, when 2,300 of them march into Canberra and to Parliament House and give their medical advice, we need to sit up and listen because we are not those people. They know the impact because they've studied it. They are listening to the climate science.

This hysteria activism that is being talked about is ridiculous. We should be hysterical. The climate and the earth are cooking. They are boiling. People need to take this seriously. Preventing an inquiry into Middle Arm will allow us all to look the other way. But I can tell you now that, on this side of the chamber, the Australian Greens—alongside some on the crossbench—are not looking away. We will continue to make the government accountable. We will continue to remind the opposition of the things that they said while they were in power and the decisions that they made, because we've got the legacy of it now. The legacy piece is here and this government continues it. So I fully support this inquiry.