Greens Leader Adam Bandt will today join solar installers, the Smart Energy Council and Queensland candidate for Ryan Elizabeth Watson-Brown to announce the Greens’ plan for Cheaper and Cleaner Power for Homes and Businesses.

Greens Senate Candidate for South Australia, Emeritus Professor Barbara Pocock, has joined Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young today to announce the Greens would invest $200 million to kickstart Whyalla’s green steel industry. The commitment is part of a national CEFC-like Green Metals bank to finance a new green metals industry across Australia, a vital component of the Greens’ plan to transition away from coal and gas and build things in Australia instead of shipping raw materials overseas.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt MP, has referred allegations of a $1 billion taxpayer funded climate fraud through the government’s carbon credits scheme to the Auditor General and called for a full, independent inquiry into the claims.

Overnight a whistleblower, the highly-renowned former head of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee, Andrew Macintosh, described the program as “largely a scam”.

Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“This is yet another rort from a terrible government.

To stop coal communities collapsing, every coal worker should have a decade of generous financial support, including wage subsidies to assist in moving to paid employment in new industries including renewables, minerals mining and green manufacturing, retrain, or take an early retirement, Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt MP has announced today.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has expressed disappointment at Labor’s capitulation to Scott Morrison’s plan to give $600 million in public money to Snowy Hydro to build a gas-fired power plant that experts say we don’t need.

In 2021 Labor said the plan looked like “a cynical attempt to pick a fight on gas and continue the climate wars, or to reward the major Liberal donor who owns the Kurri Kurri site.

The Greens also said non-binding ideas of converting to green hydrogen down the line are a fig leaf for new gas infrastructure. 

Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young responded to comments made today by Resources Minister Keith Pitt and the response in Glasgow to Australia's poor showing at COP26:

"Our allies around the world came to Glasgow with strong 2030 targets and a commitment to get out of coal and curb methane. The arrogant Morrison Government showed up with their plan to dig deeper into coal and gas and with absolutely no intention to take COP26 seriously.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young commenting from COP26 in Glasgow this morning local time: 

“Mr Morrison has had a disaster of a world trip - from Rome to Glasgow, he has been embarrassed and called out for his lack of trustworthiness and lack of commitment.

“Here in Glasgow Scott Morrison’s word is mud. Rather than being a respected world leader, the Prime Minister is will leave here with a bad reputation for being a blocker, a liar and sop to the fossil fuel industry.

Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young will drive a plan to manufacture electric vehicles in her home state and encourage a national incentive scheme to accelerate the uptake of EVs, as the party’s new portfolio holder.

Senator Hanson-Young said:

“I’m committed to taking up the fight for EVs in Australia. Today’s electric cars are smart, comfortable and better for the environment - and I can’t lie, the acceleration is awesome.

The Government’s latest attempt to turn the Australian Renewable Energy Agency into a fossil fuel bank will be met once again by the Greens who say their disallowance motion still has the constitution and the Senate on its side.

The Greens will move to disallow those parts of the regulations that seek to turn ARENA into a fossil-fuel funder.

Australia’s biggest thermal coal and LNG customer, Japan, has announced new 2030 targets for their electricity sector, slashing the amount of coal and gas they intend to use, with a 41% cut in thermal coal and 46% cut in gas over the next 10 years.

Given Australia’s high reliance on Japan, these new targets could see the Australian thermal coal industry slashed by almost 20% by 2030, putting the lie to Liberal and Labor’s claims that coal will continue to be mined and exported for decades to come.