2021-02-02
This morning the people's climate rally came to the lawns of Parliament House. They came to the people's house today to make sure that politicians are confronted with the reality of the climate crisis at the start of the parliamentary year, because they know that two centuries of colonisation have undone the millennia of management and care of country by First Nations people.
For us, it's the love of this planet and its people that drives our action on climate. But our rage has to match our love: rage at the harm being done by the climate crisis to communities across the global south and right here; rage at the big corporations and politicians who put profit ahead of people; and rage at the Liberals and Labor, who have taken millions of dollars in donations from coal and gas corporations. While the world is taking action to address the climate emergency, Scott Morrison and Rupert Murdoch have parked Australia in a historical cul-de-sac. They have made Australia a pariah of the world.
Last summer, we saw fires savage and ravage large parts of our country. We saw drought along the Murray-Darling, and there were weeks when smoke and ash choked our cities. This summer, we saw more of the same—from major flooding and rain battering New South Wales coasts to heatwaves and fires in Perth. Burning coal, oil and gas is making extreme weather more intense and more frequent. The world's current greenhouse gas emissions reduction promises are not enough to limit global warming to below two degrees C. We must cut pollution rapidly. The window to do this is open until 2030, not 2050. That's why the Greens want to make sure that global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees and our target is a 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.
We say no to a gas lit recovery because that's no recovery at all. We demand climate justice. We know that there is no justice in a transition to a post-carbon economy that leaves control of green industries in the hands of big corporations. The rampant planet-abusing consumption and extraction of resources by giant corporations and governments who are captured by these polluting interests have brought us to the place we're at today, a climate emergency. Frankly, we know there is no hope for true climate justice in a capitalist, profit-driven society like ours. We cannot address the climate crisis and achieve justice without changing the economic system that demands constant extraction. We will show that people matter. Together our power, the power of the people, is much greater than that of the conservative politicians that sit here, the media barons that are out there and the rabid corporations who are just full of greed.