Category: Australian News

Federal Water Minister David Littleproud is completely out of touch if he believes his claims on ABC Radio this morning that the only problem with the Murray Darling Basin is a lack of water due to drought, the Greens say.
Greens Murray Darling Basin spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Minister is shirking responsibility by claiming that unless it rains, there’s no water to share.
“The NSW Natural Resources Commission found over-allocation of water in favour of up-stream corporate irrigators pushed the river system into severe drought leading to the devastating fish kills,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“If water is over-extracted by irrigators then it isn’t lack of it falling from the sky that means there’s not enough to go round. This is clearly a water management issue and therefore under the Minister’s purview.
“The Minister needs to stop working in favour of big corporate irrigators and lift the freeze on buying back environmental water.
“Water must be returned to the River and we must have a Royal Commission to fix the management of the Murray Darling Basin before it is too late.
“The National Party’s head in the sand attitude to climate change is a slap in the face to rural communities and farmers.
“Between denying climate change and refusing to tackle the greed of big corporate irrigators, it’s no wonder scientists are warning there will be more fish deaths this summer.”

The ALP is melting down over climate policy, and Anthony Albanese is missing in action.
“The Government’s climate policy is shockingly weak, and rather than showing leadership, Labor looks like they’re about to join them. At a time when we need to be declaring a climate emergency, WA Labor is declaring climate surrender,” said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.
“WA Labor’s decision to dump the emissions targets that Labor just took to the federal election and replace them with the Coalition’s shockingly weak targets follows Queensland Labor’s support for Adani and full throated attack on climate protesters. Anthony Albanese’s inability to reign them in shows just how adrift the Labor Party has become and why the Greens are now the real opposition.
“Labor has changed their climate policy half a dozen times in recent years and with every change its got weaker. With big donations from the coal, oil and gas lobby continuing to flow, Albo out to lunch and the ALP adrift at sea, it’s only the Greens who are prepared to take the fight up to this rotten government.
“Where is Albo, and when is he going to tell us what Labor’s climate policy is?”
“It looks like Labor and the Liberals are now on a unity ticket in backing Tony Abbott’s measly emissions targets, which are not consistent with global warming staying below two degrees,” said Greens Climate Change Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP.
“The Greens are fighting the Liberals’ climate denialism, but it looks like Labor won’t be with us.
“Anthony Albanese needs to get his colleagues on the same page, override the WA Labor party and help the Greens fight for emissions cuts consistent with the Paris ‘two degree’ goals, because otherwise we’re on track for climate disaster and Labor’s climate credibility is shot.

The Morrison Government will be responsible for the death of the Great Barrier Reef unless it takes urgent action on climate change, the Greens say.

“Today’s report is a Code Red on the survival of the Great Barrier Reef,” Greens Environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“Today’s report confirms that things are getting much worse for the Great Barrier Reef under the Morrison government. We must have immediate and comprehensive climate action if we are to save it.

“The future of the Reef, the 64,000 jobs that depend on it, and its value as a World Heritage Area are all in peril because of the fossil-fuel loving Coalition.

“It’s not the Greens saying this, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has again clearly said climate change is the biggest threat to the Reef and without national and global action, it won’t be ‘Great’ for much longer.

“Meanwhile, Matt Canavan is in India courting coal barons and putting the future of the Reef and the climate in further danger.

“If the PM and the Environment Minister insist on keeping their heads in the sand on climate change they’ll be to blame for the death of the Great Barrier Reef. Time to stop shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Greens Oceans spokesperson and chair of the Senate Inquiry into the $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said: “It’s official, the Great Barrier Reef, the planet’s biggest living organism, has been admitted to the emergency ward.”

“No amount of cosmetic surgery will save it from its inevitable total decline. The life support it needs is urgent and requires drastic climate action.

“Collectively, the world needs to reduce emissions. As custodian of this natural wonder, Australia must lead from the front and it isn’t doing that.”

The Biloela family must be allowed to stay in Australia, Greens Immigration and Citizenship spokesperson Nick McKim says.
“Trying to deport a family, including Australian born children, in the dead of night is emblematic of this government’s heartlessness,” Senator McKim said.
“Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and David Coleman must listen to the community and allow Priya, Nades and their children to stay in Australia.”
“With the stroke of a ministerial pen they could be released from detention and allowed to get on with their lives.”
“This is their home. They are beloved members of the Biloela community.”
“The advocates and community who have tirelessly rallied behind this family have done a fantastic job.”

If the NSW Government was serious about preventing “Fish Armageddon” this summer, it would secure water supply for native fish so they don’t need rescuing in the first place, Greens water spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“The NSW Government’s refusal to accept the findings of the Natural Resources Commission is outrageous. The findings show over-allocation of water in favour of up-stream corporate irrigators pushed the river system into severe drought three years earlier than it would have, leading to the fish kills in the Menindee Lakes and Darling River.
“They’ve had more than six months since those devastating fish kills to stop over extraction and lift the freeze on buying back environmental water so native fish can get the water they need to survive.
“Instead, they plan to rescue dying fish from the river when the heat sets in and the water stops flowing, which does nothing to prevent future fish kills.
“It’s time the NSW Government stopped working in favour of big corporate irrigators and started acting in the best interests of family farmers, river communities, the environment and native fish.
“Water must be returned to the River and we must have a Royal Commission to fix the management of the Murray Darling Basin before it is too late.”

The Federal Government must accept the science pointing to the need for drastic emissions reduction to protect the Great Barrier Reef and actually take the necessary action instead of wasting time trying to influence UNESCO’s climate change policy, the Greens say.

“This looks a lot like history repeating itself when it comes to the in-danger listing of the Reef by the World Heritage Committee,” Greens Environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“Australia has form when it comes to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying UNESCO to influence its decision making on the Reef so it can push ahead with climate-destroying projects like Adani’s Carmichael coal mine.

“If the Reef is to survive, the Morrison Government must accept climate change is the Reef’s greatest threat and they must stop stalling on meaningful action to drastically reduce emissions.”

Greens Oceans spokesperson and chair of the Senate Inquiry into the $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said, “Australians are custodians of this international icon for the whole world”.

“We know climate change is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Yet our emissions have been rising under the Morrison Government, and we are pushing on with massive new coal mines that will export global warming to the world,” Senator Whish-Wilson said.

“Our role as both custodian of this treasure and coal-plugger is a shameful conflict of interest that this government has gone to great lengths to hide and spin their way out of.

“As chair of the Senate inquiry into the $444m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, I discovered the main motivation for this grant was to avoid an ‘in danger listing’, to avoid telling the truth about the tenuous future for the reef, and for more spin and greenwash to hide this government’s shameful record on climate action.

“Scott Morrison shouldn’t be trying to hide the truth, which is as plain as daylight: the GBR is ‘in danger’ whichever way you look at it, and the actions of his government have played a role in the unfolding tragedy we are seeing on this massive ecosystem visible from space.”

Greens climate change spokesperson Adam Bandt MP, today called on the government to rule out privatisation of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which Scott Morrison has called the ‘world’s most successful green bank’, warning it would leave the government without even a fig-leaf of a climate change policy.
“Just last week, Scott Morrison was boasting to Pacific Island leaders about the importance of the ‘world’s most successful green bank’ to the government’s climate policy, yet now there’s discussion about selling it off,” said Mr Bandt.
“Scott Morrison has repeatedly said the CEFC is one of the key planks of the government’s climate policy. He must immediately rule out selling off the CEFC, one of the few effective things this government is doing to fight climate change.
“Selling it off would leave the government without even a fig-leaf of a climate change policy and further weaken Australia’s already miserable efforts to fight global warming.
“I’m proud of the role the Greens played in establishing the CEFC and securing its $10 billion for clean energy in the 2010 shared power Parliament. Since 2011, it has backed renewable energy projects across the country, helping cut pollution and make clean energy cheaper.”
“We’ll be fighting tooth and nail to keep the CEFC in public hands.”

Greens climate spokesperson, Adam Bandt, said that when the Prime Minister attends the G7 summit this weekend, the first time Australia has participated, he must back French President, Emmanuel Macron’s, demands for the Amazon fires to be recognised as an international crisis and made a top priority of the G7 meeting.
“Scott Morrison must back Macron’s call for the world to act on the Amazon climate emergency ,” said Mr Bandt.
“Last week, Scott Morrison bullied and bribed his way out of meaningful climate action at the Pacific Islands Forum but he won’t get away with it this weekend.
“There is no place to hide on the world stage. When Scott Morrison takes his place next to G7 summit leaders tomorrow, he must offer action on coal to cool the planet, not side with the demagogues club.
“The Amazon is 40% of the world’s tropical forests, 20% of our oxygen and up to 15% of global biodiversity. Right now, it is burning out of control. This is an international crisis and Scott Morrison must support efforts to treat it as such.”

Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young will tell Norwegian company Equinor, which plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, “you’re not welcome in SA” when she meets with representatives from the company in Adelaide today.
Senator Hanson-Young will also highlight the findings of The Australia Institute report released today, showing SA is unlikely to receive any noticeable benefit from tax payments as a result of oil and gas production in the Bight.
“South Australians don’t want our Bight turned into an oilfield and this is the message I’ll be delivering on their behalf to Equinor today,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Drilling in the Bight will be a disaster for coastal communities, for tourism and fishing jobs, and could devastate our unique marine life and beautiful beaches – it’s not worth the risk.
“The Australia Institute Report shows exploration drilling in the Bight would be ‘unlikely to pay any royalty income or tax to the state or federal governments’  and ‘decades of subsidy may be necessary before major oil and gas projects provide benefits to state government’.
“It would be extremely reckless of any government to put more than 10,000 tourism, fishing and aquaculture industry jobs at risk, for little to no economic benefit. Instead, the Bight should actually be protected from drilling and given World Heritage status.
“Polls consistently show the vast majority of South Australians oppose drilling in the Bight, along with the majority of Australians.  It’s high time Equinor start listening and the major parties stop doing the bidding of their political donors in the fossil fuel industry and instead act in the best interests of the communities they’re meant to represent.
“No amount of spin is going to change the minds of South Australians – Big Oil is not welcome here.”

We have lost an Australian original with the passing of Tim Fischer.
Tim Fischer was a dear friend. Jenny and I are deeply saddened by Tim’s passing. Together, with our entire nation, our thoughts are with Tim’s wife Judy, their sons Harrison and Dominic and his extended family and many friends.
Tim Fischer was a big Australian in every sense of the word. Big in stature, big in his belief, big in his passion, big in his vision for what Australians could achieve and big in his view of Australia’s place in the world. As a result, Tim Fischer will forever cast a big shadow on our nation.
Tim Fischer walked his own path with honesty and humility and that is what Australians loved about him.
Tim Fischer served as Deputy Prime Minister from March 1996 to July 1999 and led the federal parliamentary National Party for more than nine years. A former NSW state MP, he was elected to the southern central NSW federal seat of Farrer in 1984 and re-elected five times before retiring in 2001.
Mr Fischer, who served as Trade Minister in the Howard Government, was esteemed by his Coalition colleagues, respected by his opponents and loved by Australians everywhere as he travelled the country in his trademark Akubra hat.
He was an all in conviction politician. This integrity and resolve were underlined when he stood firm with Prime Minister Howard on tough new gun laws following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. They are Tim Fischer’s gun laws too.
Gun laws were not popular in regional Australia in 1996 and Tim Fischer took to the highways and byways to persuade and convince regional Australians about the need for change.
I believe this was his finest moment. Australia will always be in his debt.
Before entering parliament, Tim Fischer served as an Australian Army Officer in Vietnam. As a parliamentarian, he always demonstrated a deep loyalty and affection to service personnel and veterans.
Later in life, he was chairman of Tourism Australia where I had the privilege to serve with him. Tim also served as national chair of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. From 2009-12, he served as Australia’s first resident Ambassador to the Holy See. Tim Fischer also wrote several books, including a number of books about trains – one of his great passions.
My Government will be offering Tim’s family a state funeral to celebrate his life and extraordinary contribution to Australia.
Scott Morrison