After the tenth whale has today been entangled in Queensland shark nets, the Greens are again calling on the state government for an urgent review of Queensland’s system of shark nets and drum lines.

Lines attributable to Senator Larissa Waters, Greens leader in the Senate

"Nets and drumlines are indiscriminate killers of protected wildlife, and the evidence shows non-lethal measures are more effective at protecting swimmers.

Greens Support Queenslanders with Disability Network Calls For Better Disaster Response For The Disability Community 

Today Greens Spokesperson for Disability Jordon Steele-John and Greens Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters have given their support for a range of policy commitments set out by the Queensland Disability Network.

The Greens call on the Queensland and federal governments to reject Arrow Energy’s massive expansion proposal to drill hundreds of new coal seam gas wells at Hopeland in the Western Downs Region and lay 440km of pipelines in fertile farm land.
 
Arrow Energy has applied to increase its number of coal seam gas wells at the Hopeland site from six to 286. The state government previously declared the area off-limits for future coal seam gas projects after land and groundwater was contaminated by the Linc Energy underground coal gasification disaster.
 

Greens Senate Leader Senator Larissa Waters has today introduced a bill in the Senate to ban thermal coal mines in the Galilee Basin, effectively outlawing the Adani mine and Clive Palmer’s proposed coal mine.

She said opening up the Galilee Basin for thermal coal mining was a carbon bomb that would push global warming to unsafe levels and kill off the Great Barrier Reef.

“The Galilee Basin is a carbon bomb and in reality the science demands we don’t open up a single new coal mine,” Senator Waters said.

Coral bleaching in the far north of the Great Barrier Reef shows the Federal and Qld Governments are failing to deal with the impact of climate change on the natural icon and could see it listed on UNESCO’s ‘in danger’ list, according to the Greens.

Scientists have today reported significant coral bleaching at three locations in the Great Barrier Reef’s far north. There is a heightened alert for a potential mass bleaching event over the next two to four weeks.

The Morrison Government’s decision not to consider the impacts of Adani sucking up 12.5 billion litres of water from a region in deep drought shows the Government has been completely captured by big mining companies, according to Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Mining spokesperson, environmental lawyer Senator Larissa Waters.

Australian Governments must do more to keep UNESCO from declaring the Great Barrier Reef ‘in danger’ including bold action on climate change and water quality, according to the Greens.
 
Co-deputy leader and Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters said, “The Reef report out today is an exercise in spin and not enough work has been done to ensure the natural icon’s long-term survival.
 
“The World Heritage Committee gave Australia homework four years ago, to show why the Reef shouldn’t be listed as “in danger”.
 

47,570 full-time jobs a year would be created in Queensland under the Greens plan to rapidly transform Australia’s energy system to renewables by 2030.

Greens energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said: "coal is the world’s biggest cause of climate change and Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal with 80 per cent of what we dig up being sent overseas to be burned. Unless we phase out coal, we can’t deal with climate change and the Greens are the only party to have a plan to do it."

Queensland Greens Senator Andrew Bartlett has welcomed the decision of a Federal Court Judge in Brisbane today not to jail six Queensland residents who engaged in peaceful protests at the Pine Gap Military Base.

The Federal government and Attorney-General George Brandis tried to escalate their charges using a draconian Cold War era law and urged the Judge to jail the protestors.

"Today marks a failed attempt by the Attorney-General and the Federal government to stifle the Pine Gap protestors' freedom of speech and freedom to express their religious beliefs.