2014-07-08
Christine Milne
The Clean Energy package that we negotiated with the ALP and independents after the 2010 election gave us a chance to fight the effects of climate change. Now we are dealing with a Government that is on the wrong side of history. They've ignored the advice of the world's leading climate scientists and economists, who agree that the most efficient and effective way to reduce carbon pollution is to put a price on emissions. It's clear Abbott and Palmer will not listen to evidence or reason.
On Monday night, I spoke against the repeal of the Clean Energy Legislation:
I am reminded of TS Eliot's poem The Hollow Men, where he says:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
He was asked some years later whether that was still his view. He said that he would not write that again because he was not sure that it would end in either way. As a result of the H-bomb, he said there were people whose houses were bombed who 'don't remember hearing anything'.
That is where we are in this debate. There is such denial of reality going on in this parliament, but that is not shared outside the parliament. The people actually get it. They know that we are living in a world of accelerating global warming and they know that we have to act on it. There is a level of anxiety in the back of the minds of most people, but the people I particularly want to talk about tonight, and speak on behalf of, are our future generations — of those who are yet to be born. I want to speak on behalf of the voiceless, young people like those I met outside the parliament today with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, and others — young people around Australia who are marshalling and marching and wanting action on climate change because they know it is about the future. I also want to speak on behalf of the ecosystems of the planet, which do not have a voice in this parliament. All we have heard are superficial and trite three-word slogans about axing the tax and about power prices, but nothing about the real impacts of what we are currently living through.
We know that our community supports strong action on climate change, and now we will have to fight for it again. Tony Abbott and his fossil fuel vested interests have shown they will do anything to cling to their outdated dig it up and burn it mentality. They'll ignore all of the evidence, they'll tell any lie, and they'll jeopardise our long term future for short term profits.