Condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine

Abigail spoke in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and called on the NSW Government to condemn Putin's military aggression.

Abigail said:

(1) That this House notes that Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

(2) That this House further notes that:

(a) Russian military forces have attacked Ukraine in at least eight oblasts (regions) and notably the capital city of Kyiv and the cities of Kharkiv, Odessa, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Mariupol, and others;

(b) according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1,900 civilian casualties were recorded between 24 February 2022 and 15 March 2022;

(c) according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 3.1 million refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine; and

(d) following the verification by the World Health Organization of 43 attacks on health care, and reports of bombings of a maternity hospital, a civilian shelter, a preschool, a theatre with families sheltering inside, and populated residential areas, as well as the use of thermobaric weapons and human shields, Russia has been accused of war crimes by the governments of Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and others.

(3) That this House:

(a) condemns Vladimir Putin's military aggression in Ukraine;

(b)affirms that everyone deserves freedom and safety;

(c) calls on all parties to remember the human cost of war and to work peacefully through diplomatic channels to de‑escalate the situation and restore Ukraine's sovereignty;

(d) affirms the right of the people of Ukraine to peace, self-determination and territorial integrity;

(e) acknowledges the inexcusable violence of war and that this violence and cost of war is borne by ordinary people;

(f)calls on the Australian Government to use every effort to de-escalate tensions and bring the focus back to diplomacy;

(g) calls on Australia's Foreign Minister to use Australia's Autonomous Sanctions framework to respond to Russia's actions and to sanction all Russian oligarchs; and

(h) calls on the Australian Government to accept a special humanitarian intake of at least 20,000 people from Ukraine in addition to maintaining all existing humanitarian and refugee intakes.

You can find the full transcript on Hansard, here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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