Thanks Christine and thanks to all of you for being here today and, most importantly, for working so hard to realise the positive, commonsense vision we all share.

Thank you Michael for your welcome to your country. I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.

Thanks to all our Greens MPs – Sylvia, Ian, John – and MP elect – Cate – for joining us today.

The Greens want to give politics a good name. We want to energise the democratic process so people are inspired. So people know they can make a difference. Together we can achieve the changes to ensure our planet survives and thrives.

Our vision is that all people of all nations have a home, clean water, and healthy food.

That democracy flourishes and that we live in a world at peace. All this is achievable – it’s the future we must not lose sight of. Even though others do.

I am often asked why I want to be a NSW senator.

I am passionate about working with communities. It is their voices we need to hear in Canberra.

Grassroots campaigning is alive and well in NSW:

  • The transport campaigners working for commuter rail services on closed rail lines in northern NSW
  • Traditional Indigenous owners campaigning with forest activists to protect their sacred sites and the southeast native forests
  • Unionists working for safer workplaces and to protect workplace rights
  • Teachers fighting for the funds needed to build world class public education
  • Farmers on the Liverpool Plains committed to saving their farm land and waterways.

These are some of the people I want to represent.

They are courageous, persistent, strategic, feisty. They stay true to their ideals. These are the qualities we need in federal parliament. I feel passionate about bringing their voice to Canberra.

Today I am launching the Greens Climate Change Plan for NSW. We are proposing:

  • real action on climate change
  • a transition away from reliance on coal fired power to clean nergy;
  • an investment in public transport projects across the state, and
  • protection of NSW’s native forests so we can lock up green carbon.

This is an achieveable plan. The challenge is how we make it happen.

The answer lies with local communities taking action. Action backed by a strong Greens parliamentary voice:

  • Farmers blockading mining companies from exploring and mining on their land.
  • Committed activists chained to coal trains at the world’s largest coal port.
  • The hundreds of thousands who participate in Walk Against Warming each year.
  • People leading the way with solar panels on their rooves.

People in NSW clearly want action on climate change.

Senator Bob Brown and the Greens Senators in Canberra are leading the way on climate change policy. The renewable loans guarantee plan launched yesterday is a great example.

In NSW the Greens climate change plan will not only help reduce carbon pollution and provide an economic boost through job creation. It will also bring local environmental benefits. No new coal mines and the phasing out of coal fired power will help clean up local rivers and creeks.

And the filthy air that hangs over open cut coal mining areas. No region should carry the health burden inflicted on the people of the Hunter and the western coalfields.

When I last visited native forests in South East NSW the local traditional owners took me to their land which is protected by law.

But the forest was logged and wood chipped. This tragic destruction is subsidised to the tune of $9 million a year by the Victorian and NSW governments.

I will take the campaigns to protect the environmental wealth of NSW to the Federal parliament.

I wanted to share with you another experience when I was in the southeast.

On one side of Twofold Bay outside Eden you see the giant piles of woodchips waiting export. On the other side of the Bay is the museum to the whaling industry which was once viewed as the mainstay of the local economy.

But the end of the whaling industry did not bring the predicted economic hard times. We want our southeast native forests to flourish like the whales off our coast. Our aim is to relegate woodchipping to a museum.

We can take inspiration for this campaign from the successful work to protect the River Red Gums.

Comprehensive protection is now needed for our South East forests.

For the past decade I have worked with a dedicated and talented team to end the corrupting influence of political donations. The Greens Democracy4sale project has put this issue on the political agenda.

We need federal action to restore democracy in this area, as we did more than a century ago when women in this country won the right to vote.

Prior to entering parliament I was Director of AID/WATCH. I saw first hand the misuse of Australia’s aid budget. How too often it becomes a form of corporate welfare for businesses looking for overseas markets. I am keen to renew this work to ensure that overseas aid money works for local communities and their environment. World Bank and AusAID projects need to be subjected to tough scrutiny.

We know winning a Greens senate spot will be tough but also we know we can do it.

In 2001 Kerry Nettle made history when she became the first Greens NSW senator. Her work on refugees provided leadership and compassion on an issue that should never have been politicised.

Right now there is an added urgency about our work in this election, with some polls pointing to an Abbott government win.

That would be a major setback for Australia. We can’t allow the Coalition to control the senate.

There are already too many voices in our parliaments for the developers, the polluters and the miners. We need to win back that NSW senate seat.

A key to achieving this is the work of our 48 candidates running in all NSW House of Representatives seats.

Their work is tireless and inspiring. They are working with communities across this state – with the farmers, the unionists, the forest activists and climate change campaigners I just spoke about.

I am very proud to introduce our candidates, who have been able to join us today...