Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in a climate crisis, yet, instead of taking the action that our community demands and needs, the major parties are joining together to support fossil-fuel-loving corporations because they are the ones who donate to them. In the heart of the Northern Territory is one of the biggest gas reserves ever discovered in this country. If the Liberals, Labor and big gas corporations get their way, this beautiful part of First Nations land will be opened up for fracking. This part of our country is called the Beetaloo basin, and, if the Liberals, Labor and the gas corporations eyeing it up all get their way, fracking the Beetaloo basin will emit roughly 34 billion tonnes of pollution. To put that in perspective, that is four times as polluting as burning all the coal in the proposed Adani Carmichael mine. The Morrison government, sadly supported by Labor, has committed $240 million of our public money to gas corporations to support this project going ahead.

The Greens and the community know we need to stop all new coal, oil and gas projects now. We are in a critical decade for climate action. We must take this step and support communities to transition. The Beetaloo gas project will contribute to destroying our climate. It is not too late, and I urge Labor to join with the Greens, with the community and with community members on the ground—organisers like Aiya Goodrich Carttling and Billee McGinley, who are members of the community and of the Northern Territory Greens—in opposing this project. The Greens will always fight to stop the Beetaloo gas project.