Month: September 2019

David Littleproud is a climate change denier and is not fit to serve as minister for water resources, drought, natural disaster and emergency management. He must resign as minister and, if he will not, then the Prime Minister must intervene and remove him, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.
”David Littleproud has admitted that he does not believe the accepted science that human action is driving climate change, so how can he possibly be responsible for oversight of the water resources, drought, natural disaster and emergency management portfolios,” Di Natale said.
“That’s why the Greens are calling on Minister Littleproud to do the right thing and immediately resign from the front bench so that he can be replaced with someone who understands the science of climate change. If he refuses to do so, then Scott Morrison must stand him down.”
”If Scott Morrison won’t remove Minister Littleproud from the front bench now that it’s clear he doesn’t believe the overwhelming scientific evidence that man made climate change is real, then the public would have no choice but to assume that the Prime Minister agrees with his position.”
“The Minister responsible for managing the Nation’s water doesn’t even accept the most basic climate science – he’s not up to the job,” said Greens Water Spokesperson Sen Sarah Hanson-Young.
“Keeping David Littleproud as Water Minister puts the Murray-Darling and our Nation’s foodbowl in danger.”
“The Prime Minister needs to call time on the Nats reign over the country’s biggest river system, end over extraction by big corporate irrigators, and establish a Royal Commission to start cleaning this mess up,” Hanson-Young said.

Federal Members of the crossbench in the House of Representatives will join with John Hewson AM, former Liberal leader, to call on the Parliament to declare a climate emergency, with MPs and Senators exercising a free vote so that the motion can pass.
The declaration motion to be released today calls on the House to declare an environment and climate emergency and to take urgent action consistent with internationally accepted science. The motion will be moved by Greens MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt, seconded by the independent member for Warringah Zali Steggall OAM, and supported by the independent member for Indi, Helen Haines, Centre Alliance member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie and the independent member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie.
The move follows a wave of similar declarations around the world in covering 990 national, state and local jurisdictions including the UK, France, and Canada and the city of New York.
“Climate was an emergency some thirty years ago. If this had been recognised at the time, we would already be well past the Paris targets and enjoying many thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars of investment, with much lower electricity and gas prices. Moreover, we would be a world leader in the inevitable transition to a low carbon society, rather than an embarrassing laggard. MPs and Senators should have a conscience vote on the emergency declaration so that individual members of Parliament can be held personally accountable by their constituents, their children and their grandchildren, indeed by all future generations, for the stance they took on the greatest economic, social, political and moral challenge of this century,” said Dr Hewson.
“We are facing an existential climate crisis that threatens life as we know it. With record drought and Australia ablaze barely a week out of winter, it is time to tell the truth about how severe the climate emergency is. If the government can declare a Budget emergency, it can declare a climate emergency. Once we are honest about the climate emergency, we can develop the plans to tackle it,” said Mr Bandt.
“We need to urgently address the climate change emergency that is upon us. We are seeing unprecedented extreme weather events  that are causing terrible health impacts, particularly the effects of asthma from poor air quality. The time is now to call on the Federal government to act quickly and decisively,” said Zali Steggall, independent member for Warringah.
Dr Haines said farmers know better than anyone what it means to live with a changing climate.
“They are working hard right now to adapt their farming practices,” she said. “They know that last year was the second warmest and fifth driest year in Australian history. They also know that climate change is an enormous opportunity. In my electorate of Indi, dozens of farming communities are developing solar power plants on their land, harvesting the sunshine while their sheep graze underneath. Capturing carbon on the land – in our soils and trees –could provide an additional income of $40 billion in the agricultural sector. Declaring a climate emergency means we put a stake in the ground to say we will tackle this and we will seize this opportunity. Australian rural communities deserve no less.”
“The science is in, climate change is real and we need urgent sustained and consistent action to address emissions. The last decade of policy uncertainty has been an exercise in absolute frustration. We are reaping what we have sown with our community – especially our young people – fed up with our inability to get on with the job,” said Rebekha Sharkie, Centre Alliance member for Mayo.
“Climate change is the most shocking example of intergenerational social injustice one could imagine. The consequences of inaction are so severe that dealing with the climate-change emergency should be Federal Government’s first priority,” said Andrew Wilkie, independent member for Clark.
Motion Text: 
MEMBER FOR MELBOURNE: I give notice that on the next day of sitting I shall move that this House:
(1)     declares an environment and climate emergency;
(2)     recognises that:
(a)     the recent report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 °C, indicates that we are facing a climate emergency, and as a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally;
(b)     this IPCC report has found that the world is not on track to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius;
(c)     at a national level, England, France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada have all declared a climate emergency; and
(d)     extreme weather events will devastate large parts of Australia and radically impact food production, water availability, public health, infrastructure, the community and the financial system; and
(3)     notes that the Government has acknowledged urgent action is required to address climate change and calls on the Government to take urgent action consistent with the internationally accepted science.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens’ Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, has welcomed the Government’s decision to adopt Greens’ amendments to the Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports bill 2019. The amendments insert a much needed focus on animal welfare into the bill, which had previously been completely missing.
The amendments change the objects of the Act to introduce a requirement to consider animal welfare and amend clause 10 of the bill to specifically provide that the Inspector-General must consider the welfare of animals as part of their reviews.
Senator Faruqi said:
“My amendments, which the Government has adopted, are a win for animal welfare. Under this Government, any improvement to animal welfare is a hard-fought step forward.
“Before the Government got on board with my changes, the bill didn’t have a single reference to animal welfare. The Greens’ amendments insert a much needed focus on animal welfare and ensure that it is considered in all reviews.
“Requiring the Inspector-General to consider animal welfare is an important win,  but we know that live export is fundamentally incompatible with animal welfare. The only way to protect animals is to ban live exports.
“I will always be a voice for animals in Parliament,” she concluded.

The Greens have called for an urgent moratorium on water barons and non-water users buying up water while the Murray-Darling Basin remains in crisis and farmers and communities fear more mass fish-deaths this summer.

“The crisis facing the Murray-Darling requires urgent and immediate action, before more family farms and our environment hit the wall. The government must shut down the exploitation of the River by water barons and big corporate irrigators,” Greens Spokesperson for the Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said today.

“Summer is looming and if the Government doesn’t act we will see more mass fish-deaths and more family farms in crisis. No longer is this a debate about farmers versus the environment, it is the big corporates versus everyone else – family farms, river communities and the environment.

“Water Minister David Littleproud must act to reign in the unconscionable conduct in the water market and immediately impose a moratorium on water trading by non-water uses. With less water available in the system due to drought and climate change it is also time for a moratorium on new permanent plantings, while an independent audit of all water licences is conducted.

“Our river is in crisis, small family farms are suffering and a growing number of River communities don’t even have clean water to drink. The Minister says he can’t make it rain, so there’s nothing he can do. This is a total cop-out; there is plenty the Minster can do, and he must act now. Failing to crack down on those exploiting the water market or harvesting flood-plain water upstream will make the crisis facing the River and farmers worse.

“The Government can’t even tell us who owns water licences. Lack of transparency is allowing big corporations to run amok with our water. An audit of licence ownership and trading must be conducted to shine a light on these investors playing with the future of our Rivers.

“The Murray-Darling is our nation’s food-bowl, and without a healthy river system our farms can’t survive. There are no jobs on a dead River.”