2021-02-08
Responding to the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement about the climate crisis that "We are not worried, or I’m certainly not worried, about what might happen in 30 years’ time”, Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP said today that the Deputy Prime Minister’s recklessness is a threat to the lives of Australia’s children. Mr Bandt also warned that his attempts to roadblock action to reduce emissions would also hurt regional Australia.
“Michael McCormack is putting coal corporations ahead of farmers and threatening the lives of Australia’s children,” Mr Bandt said.
“The Deputy Prime Minister is basically saying he doesn’t care if people live or die.
“Scott Morrison must immediately condemn this disregard for human life.
“Michael McCormack might think he won’t be here in 30 years’ time, but today’s primary school students will.
“According to the Bureau of Meteorology, on current trends Australia is set to heat by a catastrophic 4 degrees during the lifetimes of today’s primary school students.
“If we don’t cut pollution in the next decade, we will pass crucial tipping points and the climate crisis will become an unstoppable chain reaction. The lives of today’s children will be threatened and millions of people are set to die.
“If we don’t act by 2030, it may well be ‘game over’ by 2050.
“2050 may be a long way away, but the terrible results of climate change are with us already. Climate change is already hurting people who are putting food on our table. It’s making it harder to access water, throwing crop seasons into disarray, and supercharging heatwaves that cook produce on the vines.
“It didn’t have to be this way. Michael McCormack voted to repeal the Greens-Gillard negotiated carbon price, which was substantially reducing emissions, and could have given farmers billions of dollars through carbon farming.”