Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

These are some of the headlines over the last 48 hours: 'Miners rejoice as Albanese shelves environmental watchdog', 'Albanese kills off nature positive laws' and 'Albanese abandons environment reforms'. We can all see what has happened here—that the Labor Party has caved in to the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry and the likes of Gina Rinehart. Rather than standing for what is right, protecting nature and putting in place laws that would stop the destruction, look after our environment and stop our koalas from going extinct, the Labor Party has gone weak; the Labor Party has caved in again.

The Greens have been working hard to try and get meaningful reform that would protect our ancient forests, that would stop our wildlife from going extinct. We worked hard with the government to try and get a sensible package agreed. We even put aside our policy and demands for a climate trigger, because we were told by the government that they couldn't do it because the miners wouldn't let them. So we said, 'Okay, we'll compromise, we'll be pragmatic, we'll stand up for the forests, we'll put the climate trigger aside until after the election and we'll look after the forests and the koalas today.' But they couldn't even come at that. The Labor Party has abandoned the environment. And if you want change, if you want protection, you're going to have to vote for it.