Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to leave that where it is. Thank you for that dorothy dixer, President. I'll tell you what the Australian Greens are not going to cop. We are not going to cop a lecture on environmental protection from Labor's so-called Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt, who is part of a government that is approving every coal and gas project it possibly can as fast as it possibly can while the planet is cooking and our ecosystems are crumbling around us. We're not going to cop a lecture on environmental protection from a so-called minister for the environment who is cheering on as our native forests are being flattened and burned by the logging industry in this country. We're not going to cop a lecture on environmental protection from a government that continues to subsidise the burning of fossil fuels from the public purse while our climate is breaking down around us. We are not going to cop a lecture from 'One Watt' Murray, who has spent the last few months sitting in the corporate boardrooms of mining corporations and logging interests drafting up these laws. Make no mistake—these laws have been written for big business. They have been written for the loggers. They have been written for people who want to destroy our environment. That's what so-called environment minister Murray Watt has spent the last few months doing, and we see right through what he is up to.

Who is cheering on the Labor Party to get these laws through the parliament quickly? Let's have a look. The Business Council of Australia wants these laws passed quickly. The mining lobby wants these laws passed quickly. The loggers want these laws passed quickly. The Labor Party wants these laws passed quickly. That tells us everything we need to know—every simple thing that we need to know. The Greens have got a message for the Labor Party, particularly the so-called minister for the environment, who is actually masquerading in that role because he's a minister for big business, Murray Watt. That message is this—do not take the Greens for granted in this place. These laws do not protect our precious, beautiful carbon-rich forests that are home to so many spectacular and beautiful creatures. They do not protect the climate. Because they don't protect forests and they don't protect our climate, they're not worth the paper they are printed on. We are not going to vote for laws that take environmental protection backwards in this country. And I say this to the Australian people: you know you can trust the Greens to fight for the environment. Our party was founded to protect nature. Our party was founded to protect forests, to protect the wild rivers, to protect our coastlines, to protect our oceans and to protect our terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It is in our DNA, and we have fought, since we were founded, to protect nature. We're doing it today, and we will continue with every fibre in our being to protect and defend nature. We will fight hard to do that in this place and we will fight hard to do that in the forests, in the oceans and on the streets if we have to. We take pride in our history, and the Australian people know that they can trust us on nature. They can trust us on the environment. They can trust us on forests. They can trust us on climate, and they can trust us on ecosystems.

Wherever those ecosystems are—local in communities or at a global level—the Greens are here to protect nature and to demand Labor do better, demand that our forests are protected, demand that we have climate action and demand that Labor stop sitting down with the big polluters, the loggers, the miners and the fossil fuel corporations; get out of those board rooms; get out of those back rooms; and actually work with the Greens to deliver reform through this Senate that actually does what it says on the tin—protects nature, protects forests and protects climate.