Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Climate change

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (13:13): It is only three days into October, and we already have fires raging across Australia, including here in Victoria where several towns in East Gippsland have been forced to evacuate. We have just lived through the hottest September here on record. Online we see videos of New York City and the dangerous flash flooding that they are experiencing. We have already had heatwaves in Sydney – 34 degrees in spring. Holy hell, this is getting really scary, and yet I look around and I see politicians just acting like it is business as usual. It is not business as usual. This is terrifying. People are terrified.

We have a new Premier here in Victoria, and I hope she changes direction, because under the old Labor Premier Daniel Andrews we had new gas developments approved by Labor. We had a new coal project supported by Labor. We had secret deals to extend the life of our coal plants here in Victoria. This is not the way to solve climate change. In fact the bare minimum we need to do is stop supporting new coal and gas. The science says we need to keep coal and gas in the ground. It is literally that simple. Yet here in Victoria we have Labor continuing to support new coal and gas projects. We have to change direction. We need to turn around and run 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction. No new coal and gas. Solve climate change. Stop this hell that we are going into. It is that simple.