I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) the Government's climate-wrecking 'gas-led recovery' plan includes coal seam gas drilling in Narrabri and a gas-fired power plant in the Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW),

   (ii) on 30 September 2020, the NSW planning commission approved the Santos Narrabri coal seam gas project despite more than 20,000 submissions opposing it,

   (iii) greenhouse gas emissions from the Narrabri gas project are estimated to be 128 million tonnes over the life of the project,

Instead of investing in Australia's future, the Morrison government is choosing inequality and climate collapse in its federal budget. The federal budget to be handed down tonight is many things. I'll start by saying that it's a real contradiction. After last year's big proclamation that we were back in the black, after years of highly misleading and incorrect assertions that surpluses are all the evidence we need of good economic management, we are staring down the barrel of an enormous deficit.

The Greens want a thriving, expanding and green manufacturing sector, but this government's plan for manufacturing is based on a completely unconscionable, climate-wrecking expansion of fossil fuels. They could choose renewables, but they don't. They talk up advanced manufacturing while actively decimating local research and innovation. A manufacturing plan without funding for research and skills isn't worth the paper it's written on. The Liberals and Nationals have defunded TAFEs and gutted research. They're not interested in our future.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt and NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi say the approval of the Narrabri Gas project is the first domino to fall in the Morrison Government’s gas executive-stacked energy plan, which flies in the face of the climate emergency and basic market economics.

The Narrabri Gas project is a climate disaster and it has just been approved, against the will of local farmers and the Gamilaraay Traditional custodians. 

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said:

“Scott Morrison and his gas cartel have just lit the fuse on a giant climate bomb.”

Australian Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says today is a grim day for the climate, with the Prime Minister revealing plans to gas-fire Australia’s economic recovery, and Labor abandoning its 2030 climate targets. 

Recent analysis has confirmed that to be consistent with limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees, as set out in the Paris Agreement, Australia would need targets of a 48% cut on 2005 levels by 2030. Net-zero by 2050 alone, without strong 2030 targets, will blow Australia’s ‘2 degree’ budget.

I rise to support the disallowance motion and associate myself with the comments made by my Greens colleague Senator Waters from Queensland. I will say that loud and clear: she is a Greens senator from Queensland who cares about Queenslanders, who cares about the workers in Queensland, who cares that the environment they work in is safe and healthy, and who cares about a healthy planet for everyone.

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. The devastating bushfires of last summer ripped through communities across the country. Lives were lost, livelihoods were lost, acres upon acres of bush was lost in flames, and more than a billion animals were killed. I travelled up and down my state of New South Wales and heard tragic heartbreaking stories from people who have lost loved ones, lost homes and lost businesses they have built from scratch.

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signed off on a $2 billion deal with the New South Wales Government that would fast track the Narrabri Gas Project (NGP), which will extract gas from coal seams lying deep beneath the mighty Pilliga Forest,

   (ii) the NGP is fiercely opposed by local communities, farmers, and ecologists because it threatens the Pilliga Forest, the Great Artesian Basin, farmers' livelihoods, and food and water security, and

We are in a climate emergency, and those in the government are sitting on their hands, hands which are stained with the dirty donations from the fossil fuel lobby. The Liberals' lack of action has us fully on track for 3.4 degrees of warming, which will have catastrophic consequences. History will remember you as the cowards who did nothing in a climate emergency. History will remember you as villains who blocked international action on climate. And history will remember you as the dishonest government who knew the signs and chose not to act to save the planet.

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

   (i) Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signed off on a $2 billion deal with the New South Wales Government that would fast track the Narrabri Gas Project (NGP), which will extract gas from coal seams lying deep beneath the mighty Pilliga Forest,

   (ii) the NGP is fiercely opposed by local communities, farmers, and ecologists because it threatens the Pilliga Forest, the Great Artesian Basin, farmers' livelihoods, and food and water security, and