 Coal and gas is the leading cause of the climate crisis and Labor is addicted to more coal and gas. Last year Labor approved five new coal and gas projects. There are 92 new coal and gas projects in the pipeline. Today, at the start of 2024, Labor in Queensland just approved the country's biggest new greenfield coal mine. After the cyclones and the fires and the floods in Queensland, there are proving new huge coal mines that will last for ages. Labor is kidding themselves. We can't have a safe future if we keep opening new coal and gas mines. Labor is far more concerned with what the coal and gas corporations want than what will keep people safe. The corporations are making billions of dollars in revenue and many of them aren't even paying a single cent in tax, so you have to wonder how they're getting away with it. Well, last week we discovered how. That's how much money Labor took from the coal and gas corporations and their lobby groups in their first full year of office alone. Santos, Woodside and the Minerals Council of Australia all coughed up big. So what did it get them in return? Well, Santos donated over $110,000 to Labor last year. Santos also wants to open up the new Barossa gas fields and face the staunch opposition from the local First Nations community and millions of people around the country. Are the donations to Labor the reason why the resources minister announced her decision to change the rules for Santos to fast-track their project and ignore the concerns of the locals? Labor also rammed through the sea dumping bill so that Santos could dump their emissions in East Timor's waters and approve 116 new gas wells to be fracked by Santos in Queensland. What a return on Santos' dirty donation to Labor. Big return on investment for Santos. Next on the list is Woodside. They donated $55,600 to Labor. Woodside wants to open up one of the world's most polluting projects, the Barrop hub off the coast of the Kimberley. It's an existential climate threat that will release 6 billion tonnes of emissions and requires the approval of Labor's Environment Minister. I bet Woodside reckon that they'll get it. Then there are the lobby groups, the ones who are always crawling over parliament, urging Labor to keep backing new coal and gas mines, threatening anyone who doesn't with public campaigns funded by coal and gas. To keep the doors of the ministerial suite open, Apia, the key lobby group and the Minerals Council both gave Labor $68,000 and $85,000 respectively. These corporations are driving the climate crisis, but they can't do it without Labor and they're getting Labor's support. These corporations are driving the extreme heat, the floods and the fires that people are living through right now, but Labor is giving them the go-ahead. Labor's pipeline of over 90 new coal and gas projects will ensure that the heat will be worse, the floods will rise faster and the fires burn hotter. Labor's policies mean insurance will cost more. If you can get it, more households will have to be rebuilt. More lives will be destroyed. Labor's giving these greedy, dangerous corporations the go-ahead to mine and burn more coal and gas. Labor's not only complicit in the mining and burning of coal, the leading cause of the climate crisis, it's colluding with companies who want to burn down the world for profit. The minister for resources now flies off around the world, spruiking our coal and gas, these dangerous products which are currently cooking the ocean, melting the glaciers and killing off endangered species and putting people's lives at threat. So many former Labor ministers now work for the coal and gas sector, tucking into the gravy train and into an industry which we don't need, which doesn't employ as many people as people think, doesn't pay much tax and is threatening our environment, our food, our water, our air and our lives. Every minister of resources in this country, every minister of resources in this country for the last 20 years, every former one, all now works for coal and gas corporations or their lobby groups. That's where they went into after they left it. This industry doesn't pay enough tax and some of them pay no tax at all. Labor could make them pay their fair share of tax and use it to ensure everyone had mental and dental care covered fully under Medicare. But instead, Labor's tearing up the Betaloo Basin and shipping it offshore and not even getting the tax that could be used to help wipe student debt or ensure that no one lived in poverty or that everyone had an affordable home. Labor loves to wax lyrical about national security as much as the coalition, but there's no national security in a climate crisis. Former heads of the Defence Force have been telling us that the number one threat to our national security is the climate crisis, because it will spark massive instability in our region and set off a cataclysmic chain that threatens our very security. And what is the response? Our nation is under threat, and the politicians are in bed with the enemy. The enemies are coal and gas corporations. They are mining and burning our future, and they are getting support from Labor and Liberal. We are tough in this country. People are tough, but people have a limit. How long could you live in a tent or a shipping container while you try to rebuild, nervously listening to the weather forecast to see if there's a rising river or catastrophic fire conditions on the cards? There's thousands of people around the country who are still building back from the fires and floods of years gone by, and more and more people will join them thanks to the new coal and gas mines being opened by Labor. The first step to fixing a problem is to stop making the problem worse. You can't put the fire out while you're pouring petrol on it. Every new coal and gas project that is approved by this Labor government puts people's lives at risk, it puts their livelihoods at risk, it pushes up insurance premiums, and it threatens our precious natural environment. In 2024, as so many people are struggling literally to keep their heads above water, as massive climate fuel disaster after climate fuel disaster makes so much of our country unlivable for so many people and pushes people to the brink, we cannot be opening one more new coal and gas project. These massive projects that Labor is giving the approval to could spark off a chain reaction, a climate chain reaction, a tipping point after which it will be impossible to reverse the damage. That is what the scientists fear, that we will pass the climate tipping point and future generations will not be able to unwind the damage that they are facing. That is why what we do now will reverberate for decades to come and will set the course for future generations. We are in the critical decade. We are in a climate emergency. We are in an era of global boiling, according to the UN Secretary-General. In response to that, yes, we need to have a debate about how quickly we're going to cut our emissions in this country, but the first thing we should be doing is stopping making the problem worse. No new coal and gas projects, no more excuses, no more lies, Labor. Australian Greens, Canberra