Tuesday, 12 November 2024

Climate change

Tim READ (Brunswick) (13:38): Pressure from climate activists recently forced fossil fuel giant SLB to abandon plans for the world’s largest seismic blasting gas exploration project off the Otway coast. It would have endangered whales and other marine life in southern sea country. Credit for this climate win goes to the 31,000 people who wrote to the government regulator and many more who signed petitions, called their MPs and attended rallies on land and on surfboards. This win shows that collective action is how we stop fossil fuel companies and the governments that support them.

On Saturday 23 November I will join Northern Territorians and traditional owners in the Coburg town hall to hear how we can stop the Northern Territory’s new Country Liberal Party government and the federal Labor government from opening up the Beetaloo basin for gas fracking in the territory. Around the same time, my Greens colleague Ellen Sandell will join thousands of climate activists at the people’s blockade of the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle.

Governments have been slow to catch on, but thousands of Australians are now desperately worried about the climate crisis and are putting their bodies on the line to stop fossil fuel extraction. They are doing more to ensure the safety of future generations than the rest of us sitting here. My support and solidarity is with those brave Australians on the front lines of the climate struggle.