The Australian Greens are calling on Queensland Environment Minister Powell to explain why he met with Deutsche Bank in Germany after the bank ruled out financing the Abbot Point coal port expansion.

The meeting in September was revealed late last night in Senate Estimates as a result of questioning of the federal Environment Department by Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson.

The Australian Greens welcome The Australia Institute’s report out today showing how overblown the coal industry’s contribution to jobs is in Queensland.

“While the big mining companies and their spin machines would want us to believe otherwise, this report shows the coal industry only employs 1.2 per cent of the workforce in Queensland,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens mining spokesperson, said.

Tony Abbott’s comment today, that ‘coal is good for humanity,’ while opening the Caval Ridge coalmine in Moranbah shows the Prime Minister is completely out of touch with the reality of the climate crisis we face.

“People will be shaking their heads in disbelief at the Prime Minister’s alarming comment today, and future generations will wonder how our Prime Minister could be so short sighted,” Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

The old parties have today refused to support an Australian Greens’ motion calling on the Abbott Government to rule out using federal taxpayer funders to pay the big mining companies to dump their dredge sludge on wetlands for the Abbot Point coal port.

“The Newman Government wants to use state and federal taxpayer money to pay for the big mining companies to dump their sludge spoil in or near the nationally significant Caley Valley wetlands,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment, spokesperson.

 The Adani Galilee Basin railway line, approved by the Abbott Government, could become a stranded asset and is part of an environmental and climate disaster.

“In an age of climate change, the Abbott Government has approved the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest coal mine; the world’s biggest coal port in the Great Barrier Reef; and now the railway line to join them,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

The Abbott Government’s Green Paper on energy, released today, clings to last century’s ideas by focussing on fossil fuels, while the world calls for action on climate change, say the Australian Greens.

“Just as world leaders are to meet in New York for the climate summit, with our Prime Minister notably absent, the Abbott Government is flying in the face of international calls for renewable energy with this paper focussed on fossil fuels,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

The Australian Greens have condemned the Liberal, National and Labor parties for removing protection for farmers from subsidence mining in the Murray-Darling Basin in the federal Parliament tonight.

“The Liberal, Labor and National parties have deleted the section of the Water Act that requires mining companies to commission an independent expert study of surface water and groundwater impacts when planning mining projects in the Murray-Darling Basin,” Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens mining spokesperson, said.

The global Carbon Tracker Initiative analysis out today shows the Galilee Basin coal mines are high risk for investors.

“The Galilee Basin mega coal mine proposals are as financially disastrous as they are environmentally catastrophic,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

Instead of wasting time with a secret trip to lobby the World Heritage Committee, as reported today, the Abbott and Newman governments should be following the World Heritage Committee’s recommendations, say the Australian Greens.

The draft Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, released today, does nothing to stop the onslaught of dredging and dumping already applied for along the Reef’s coast and the mass export of coal through the Reef to exacerbate climate change, say the Australian Greens.

“The plan ignores the fact that exporting millions of tonnes of coal out through the Reef will exacerbate climate change, the biggest threat facing this iconic World Heritage Area,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.