Responding to ‘hairy chested’ comments today from Labor’s climate Minister that the government would not alter its weak climate position, Greens Leader Adam Bandt has warned that Labor should ditch its ‘my way or the highway’ approach to its climate laws, saying Labor’s vote went backwards and Labor did not secure a majority in the Senate, where the Greens’ presence grew. 

Mr Bandt said the Greens wanted to work constructively with the government, but Labor could not take the Greens’ votes in the Senate for granted.

The best thing the new Labor government could do to repair the relationship with Pacific is commit to no new coal and gas, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said today.

Pacific leaders have been making clear for years that the good relationship with Australia is dependent on climate action, with a focus on no new coal and gas.

Adam Bandt has today called on Labor to listen to climate voters and refuse to open up catastrophic climate destroying gas projects of Scarborough in WA and the Beetaloo in the NT.

Former WA Premier, Colin Barnett, today is reported in the Australian Financial Review as saying:

“But climate change is what people talked about and Labor talked about [at the election] so it will be difficult to achieve a tougher target for 2030 when you’ve got a big project like Scarborough.

The Greens say confirmation in the Reef Snapshot:  Summer 2021-22 of the sixth mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef lays bare the Morrison Government’s near-decade of failure on climate action.  

The Snapshot confirms the Reef has suffered the fourth mass bleaching event since 2016, and the first in La Nina conditions, with 91% of surveyed areas showing signs of bleaching.

Lines attributable to Greens deputy leader and Queensland Senator Larissa Waters:

The Greens will today outlined plans for a $15 billion “Made in Australia” Bank and manufacturing fund - bolstering Australia’s capacity to produce components needed for the transition to clean, cheap renewable energy.

Australian Greens Senator for WA Dorinda Cox will today be joined by Greens candidate for O’Connor Giz Watson in Kalgoorlie - a region with endless sunshine and huge potential as a renewable energy superhub.

The Greens have pledged $1.14 billion in extra federal funding for WA chronically underfunded hospitals.

This investment would be funded by repairing the broken ‘resource super profits tax’ (the PRRT), forcing big corporations to pay royalties on the gas they currently access for free.

The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT), introduced in 1987, is meant to ensure that the public gets a fair share of the unearned revenue (rent) enjoyed by companies by virtue of having exclusive access to Commonwealth resources. 

New data has revealed that a small group of out-of-town property investors own a huge number of dwellings in the Northern Rivers seat of Richmond, taking advantage of Liberal and Labor-backed tax breaks to push locals out of affordable homes in the region.  

In an incredible act of climate deceit, the Labor party has revealed that they would exempt every coal mine from their emissions safeguard mechanism. This would mean that coal mines would be exempted from reducing pollution, with no requirement to manage methane emissions, reduce on-site fossil fuel use or even purchase offsets

Coal is the biggest single cause of climate change and Australia is its second biggest seller globally. To leave exempt coal from a climate plan exposes it as a fraud.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt said:

On Wednesday, Greens Leader Adam Bandt and Greens spokesperson for Mining and Resources Senator Dorinda Cox will be in Karratha, WA to launch the final component of the Greens’ Tycoon Tax, which will end tax breaks for corporations undertaking offshore gas extraction in Commonwealth waters and oblige them to pay royalties on the natural resources that rightfully belong to the people of Australia.

The Greens will push the new tax in balance of power in the Senate after the next election.