Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) to a question without notice I asked today.

Megapolluter and tax avoider Woodside have a proposal which would drill dozens of gas wells near Scott Reef, an ancient marine ecosystem home to endangered whales, sea turtles and rich marine life. This Browse project is a disaster waiting to happen. Woodside admits that a spill from its wells or from its 900-kilometre underwater pipeline could spew out pollution for months. That alone should be enough to say no to this destructive project, but it would also be a massive carbon bomb, releasing 1.6 billion tonnes of climate pollution. That's equivalent to four years of Australia's total current emissions. Yet the minister, under our environmental laws, doesn't have to consider that. He can ignore that Browse would turbocharge climate change, even though it drives coral bleaching, heatwaves, bushfires, flooding and puts nature and communities at risk.

New expert evidence from the Australian Conservation Foundation shows that Browse emissions will have a direct impact on the Great Barrier Reef. They've asked the minister to reconsider whether those climate impacts need to be assessed, and it's essential that they are. Environmental laws that fail to consider climate impacts ignore the biggest threat to nature. Approving fossil fuel projects while ignoring climate impacts breaches our international obligations. We need a climate trigger in our environmental laws, and, until we get one, the minister must commit to at least considering the direct climate impacts on the Great Barrier Reef.

Australians won't see any benefit from Browse, but we will pay the price for Woodside's greed. The project only stacks up for Woodside if they get our gas for free. Woodside would be raking in massive profits while Australia misses out on the millions that we could earn from a 25 per cent gas export tax. It's all downside for nature and for Australia. A Green environment minister who had the chance to stop a climate bomb and protect Scott Reef and the Great Barrier Reef would put the environment ahead of their fossil fuel mates.