The Abbott Government is ignoring science, economic reality and global health impacts in its push to export coal through the Great Barrier Reef, as demonstrated in Question Time in the Senate today.          

Queensland Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, questioned Minister Cormann, who was representing the Minister for the Environment.

The Australian Greens welcome Australian Academy of Science’s strong warning today that the Abbott and Newman governments’ Reef 2050 Plan fails to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

“The science is clear – the Abbott and Newman governments’ plan for our Great Barrier Reef grossly fails this World Heritage Area,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

The Abbott Government is so desperate to please its big business buddies that it’s making out like there’s progress on the one-stop shop, when actually it’s dead.

“It’s utterly bizarre that the Abbott Government keeps talking about the one-stop shop today, when it’s not even included in its repeal day bill

“The Abbott Government knows that its enabling legislation for the one-stop shop is in the Senate and the Greens have secured the numbers to stop it.

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.