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

In the last term of government, Labor approved more than 30 new coal and gas projects in Australia. Today we find out that Minister Watt has just approved a 20-year extension to Glencore's Ulan coalmine near Mudgee. This is a climate crime. It's a crime because we in this building are knowingly doing harm with the decisions that we make. The No. 1 question I get is: 'How is it possible for an environment minister and a government to approve new fossil fuel projects, when they know that every single project is a nail in the coffin of our climate?'

Minister Watt has been down to South Australia multiple times and seen the impact that that marine heatwave is having on the toxic algal bloom, and the devastation that is causing to communities in South Australia. He's got the best scientific advice on what is happening in Antarctica, which he feigned concern over yesterday in Senate question time. He has been advised on the sixth mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in the last eight years. He knows about the devastation that we've seen off the Western Australian coastline at the World-Heritage-listed Ningaloo, that has just recorded the biggest marine heatwave in our nation's history. But we still approve new fossil fuel projects. The conservative International Energy Agency has said that we must stop approving all new fossil fuel projects and rapidly transition to renewable energies.

This is why, with our new climate laws, we need a climate trigger. This is why we need strong climate targets. And this is why we need people in this parliament who will fight for nature and fight for climate action.