Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This is what the climate crisis looks like in real time—not future climate modelling, not theory, real damage happening right now to communities across this country. Over the weekend, Cyclone Narelle ripped through Exmouth and straight across the Ningaloo Reef, leaving devastation in its wake. Volunteers walked the beaches and counted more than 300 dead turtles—baby turtles—in one stretch. It's not just a handful; it's hundreds of dead baby turtles. That is the reality on the ground after one storm hit an already-stressed ecosystem. This is the second hit in a year. Last summer's marine heatwave cooked huge sections of coral and turned parts of Ningaloo's reef into a graveyard. Whole systems were knocked out, and scientists are still trying to work out the full damage, but anyone who has been in the water can tell you that it's bloody bad.

Now, it gets smashed again before it has time to recover. That is the pattern: warmer oceans, harder hits and less time to recover. This isn't random; this is exactly what happens and is what the climate scientists have been warning about for decades. While that's happening, the same companies keep expanding under this climate-wrecking Labor government. Woodside Energy is pushing ahead with gas projects right next to these precious, priceless ecosystems. They dig it up, ship it out and book the profits. The public is left to clean up the damage.

We are talking about seagrass in Exmouth Gulf being wiped out, dead sea life up and down the coastline and reef systems that took thousands of years to build devastated beyond recognition. It's not just in WA. In my state of Victoria, we've had bushfire after flood after bushfire, all in the matter of a week. Last week was the one-year anniversary of the devastating algal bloom in South Australia. Fisheries were hit, tourism was hit and ecosystems were decimated. It was another signal that our precious environment is under immense pressure from heating waters. At the same time, companies like Santos are making billions and paying next to nothing in return for this destruction. I brought 100 dead weedy sea dragons into this place to illustrate just a small part of that destruction, and that's the deal right now: these big corporations profit while everyone else bears the brunt of their damage.

This Labor government is not only letting it happen but continuing to subsidise this disgusting destruction of our precious ecosystems. Labor keeps approving new coal and gas projects while talking about climate action—talking out of both sides of their mouth. Australians see through it. You cannot run both lines at once, and you need to pick a side.

The side that you need to pick is pretty obvious. Right now, the rules are clearly flipped in favour of Santos and Woodside—protect the industry, not the environment and not the communities. If we are serious about changing that, then we need to make the polluters pay. A minimum 25 per cent tax on gas exports could start to do this as a floor, definitely not a ceiling. It is a basic step to claw back some of the money being made off the back of this damage. Use it to fund recovery, to lower bills and to invest in getting off fossil fuels faster.

But be honest about this as well. If you keep approving new fossil fuel projects, you are pouring fuel on the fire. You don't have a plan. The real line in the sand is this: no new fossil fuel projects. Stop perpetuating the problem. Make the existing polluters pay, because what is happening at Ningaloo isn't some sort of one-off event; it is a preview of our future—more heat, more shocks and less time to bounce back. Once these ecosystems go, they generally don't return. I want my kids to be able to enjoy the beaches and the reefs. I want a safe climate future for them and generations after them.

So this comes down to political choices: keep backing those big donors to the major parties like Santos and Woodside and accept more of this devastating damage, or step in, tax them properly, make them pay for their destruction and start winding this industry down before they can wreck this planet even more. Those dead sea turtles on the beach are the real cost of delay, and it will only get worse if we keep letting Woodside and Santos take advantage of the free ride we are so willingly handing them.