Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes:

(i)

that the planned Wandoan coal mine in Queensland would, at its peak coal production, contribute the equivalent of 0.17 per cent of total global emissions according to Xstrata’s own numbers,

(ii)

that approximately 108 of the 186 world nations have annual domestic emissions less than what will result from this single mine each year,

(iii)

that the emissions from burning this coal would neither be affected by a domestic carbon price nor be relevant to the mine’s assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act),

(iv)

the statement by the Prime Minister on 17 November 2010 that ‘it is up to this generation of people and the generations coming up fast behind it to take the action necessary to tackle climate change’, and

(v)

the hypocrisy of approving new coal mines while arguing that climate change is real and urgent; and

(b)

calls on the Government to give itself the power to stop such hugely polluting developments by introducing a long-promised greenhouse trigger into the Act.

Question put.