Today Abigail contributed to a Matter of Public Importance debate led by the Greens. The Greens initiated this debate to set the record straight on the impacts of the McPhillamys goldmine and the tailings dam, and give voice to the local community.
Abigail said:
I contribute briefly to the discussion. There was a lot in the contribution of the Hon. Robert Borsak that would be lovely to delve into. For all our parliamentary staff who were playing parliamentary bingo in their offices, there would have been a flurry of activity. We had the words "communism", "woke leftist" and "chardonnay".
Ms Cate Faehrmann: "Neo-Marxism".
Abigail: Yes, "neo-Marxism". It was fabulous. There will be a lot of activity in our offices. I am glad that the Hon. Robert Borsak was able to provide them with that gift, rather than being outside shooting lots of innocent animals. I endorse the comments of my colleague Ms Cate Faehrmann today, and those of all my colleagues yesterday, in relation to this issue. I will not cover the issues that they articulately detailed in relation to this proposed mine and the associated tailings dam. I will respond to some of the frankly absurd commentary associated with the decision to deny the location of the tailings dam.
The Liberal and Nationals parties and members of the conservative crossbench are screeching about how this decision is evidence of Labor somehow being a party of environmental activists. If only that were true. Labor continues to approve fossil fuel projects at a terrifying pace, and not a single coal or gas project has ever been denied on the basis of its carbon emissions and impact on climate change. The Coalition is in lockstep with the Minerals Council in trying to make political hay out of this decision, and Peter Dutton has made a suite of unholy deals with the Minerals Council and fossil fuel lobby in an attempt to secure their support. The Liberal Party has promised to remove pretty much any restrictions on mining companies, allowing them to destroy our environment and pour fuel on the fire of climate change.
Those opposite lament the loss of potential jobs due to this setback to one mining project. They claim to care about mine workers and workers in the regions. But this is self-serving spin, because the biggest, dirtiest deal the Liberal Party has made with the fossil fuel lobby and Minerals Council is its promise to wind back the hard‑won industrial relations protections, including Same Job, Same Pay laws. Well may they say that they are fighting for workers in the regions, but make no mistake: They are using those workers as a convenient pawn, while selling them out in favour of the corporate interests of their billionaire owners and big business. Ripping up Same Job, Same Pay laws will see the wages of miners go down, their conditions eroded and workers pitted against one another in a dangerous race to the bottom, with short-term contracts, degraded entitlements and no certainty of work. That is the future that the big business mining lobby is concocting with the Liberal Party.
The McPhillamys decision is being used as a convenient excuse for an all-out assault on our precious environmental and cultural heritage and industrial rights and regulations that have done so much to create a better, safer and more equitable world. Opponents of this decision need to reconsider their position and think long and hard about whether the grubby deals and sweaty donation dollars are really worth selling out First Nations people, workers, nature and the environment. It's shameful opportunism and it needs to be called out as such.
Read the transcript in Hansard here.
19 September 2024