Greens Senate Leader Senator Larissa Waters has today introduced a bill in the Senate to ban thermal coal mines in the Galilee Basin, effectively outlawing the Adani mine and Clive Palmer’s proposed coal mine.

She said opening up the Galilee Basin for thermal coal mining was a carbon bomb that would push global warming to unsafe levels and kill off the Great Barrier Reef.

“The Galilee Basin is a carbon bomb and in reality the science demands we don’t open up a single new coal mine,” Senator Waters said.

Coral bleaching in the far north of the Great Barrier Reef shows the Federal and Qld Governments are failing to deal with the impact of climate change on the natural icon and could see it listed on UNESCO’s ‘in danger’ list, according to the Greens.

Scientists have today reported significant coral bleaching at three locations in the Great Barrier Reef’s far north. There is a heightened alert for a potential mass bleaching event over the next two to four weeks.

The Australian Greens have responded to reports that India will stop importing thermal coal within 4 years, saying that it is the death knell for the Adani project and the beginning of the end of Australia’s thermal coal industry.

India’s Minister of Coal and Mines on Tuesday reportedly said as part of a planning meeting for the future of the coal industry that the country would stop importing coal by financial year 2023/24.

Quotes attributable to Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt has called for a growth in ‘renewables mining’ jobs and a phase out of thermal coal as part of the Green New Deal to unlock Australia’s potential as a clean energy superpower.

Comment from Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“A growth in ‘renewables mining’ jobs as we phase out coal is an important part of the Green New Deal.

“Government needs to take the reins and oversee the transition so we grow jobs and industries, including in areas where coal mines and power stations exist at the moment.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has slammed Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles comments on ABC's Insiders program and called on Anthony Albanese to overrule his deputy and join the Greens in opposing coal.

Quotes attributable to Adam Bandt MP:

"It's 3 years to the day since Scott Morrison hugged a lump of coal and now Labor is doing the same.

"The coal huggers in the Liberals want to build new coal-fired power stations and open up new coal mines and Labor is refusing to join with the Greens to stop them.

The Federal Government must revoke Adani’s coal mine approval after the company was today expected to be criminally convicted of false and misleading documentation about unlawful land clearing, say the Greens.

Senate Leader Larissa Waters said, “Adani has breached its environmental conditions again and can’t be trusted to go ahead with its climate-destroying coal mine.

“The Federal Government must now cancel Adani’s approval and I’ll be lodging a motion in the Senate today calling for just that.

The Greens have backed the community groups taking legal action to challenge the government regulator’s (NOPSEMA) initial approval of Norwegian oil giant Equinor’s plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

Senator for South Australia and Greens Environment Spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said the environmental approval announcement last month was a devastating outcome for the tens of thousands of Australians deeply opposed to the project.

It’s time that the fossil fuel companies whose products are responsible for the climate crisis start footing some of the bill for cleaning it up. A $1 levy per tonne of carbon pollution from the country’s biggest polluters, proposed today by the Australia Institute, is the very least that these companies can do, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

Data released in the ATO's Tax Transparency Report today showing that a third of our largest companies paid no corporate tax last year are proof that the system is rigged in favour of big corporations who make massive political donations, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

"We have two sets of rules in this country: one for big corporations who can afford to donate to Labor or the Liberals and another for the rest of us - and this report proves it," Di Natale said.

The Morrison Government’s decision not to consider the impacts of Adani sucking up 12.5 billion litres of water from a region in deep drought shows the Government has been completely captured by big mining companies, according to Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Mining spokesperson, environmental lawyer Senator Larissa Waters.