Six billion tonnes of emissions: Labor lights the fuse on a climate bomb

Today in Parliament, Abigail condemned the Albanese Labor Government’s approval of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project, calling it a catastrophic betrayal of climate action that exposes Labor’s deep ties to the fossil fuel industry and fuels growing public resistance demanding a cleaner, fairer future.

Abigail said:

On Thursday last week, the Albanese Labor Government dropped a climate bomb on every single person living in this country. In fact, it dropped a climate bomb on every single person living on this planet. I am, of course, speaking about the notorious Woodside North West Shelf gas project, which, now with Labor's endorsement, will release six billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, effectively rendering our 2050 climate targets dead. Make no mistake: The ecological battlelines have been drawn by the Federal Labor Government, and it is on the wrong side of history. At the front lines, standing opposite Labor, are everyday people, who all stand to be most impacted by the decision.

Labor's decision has effectively paved the way for more frequent and intense bushfires, floods and other extreme weather events. Those disasters will not only worsen the quality of life of millions of Australians but also have far-reaching consequences for billions of other people around the world. The actions of the Albanese Labor Government will last for generations. The reckless approval of the project represents a devastating blow to climate action in this country. It is yet another misstep from a party desperately clinging to its waning relevance in the primary vote, as its longstanding, deeply entrenched ties with fossil fuel companies are slowly being exposed for what they truly are: unbridled corruption.

But should we really be surprised that the first act of the new Albanese Government was an act of climate cowardice? Throughout the entire election, Labor was spruiking its gas-backed, non-scientific approach to climate change. And time and time again, whether it is the North West Shelf or any of the other 29-odd coal and gas mines Labor has approved since 2022, we have seen that it takes a massive outcry from everyday people before Labor will even sweat about the consequences of its decisions. This is corporate capture, plain and simple.

For anyone watching along at home, begging for change, the good news is that the fight for something better starts here. It starts with the thousands of people across the country who dare to believe that a better world is possible. Time and again, the Labor Party makes reckless decisions, such as approving coal and gas projects in a climate crisis, banking on the hope that voters will choose Labor over the deeply dysfunctional climate policies of the Coalition. But the tide is turning on the two-party system in this country, and the people's support has the power to transform that tide into an unstoppable force that will fundamentally transform the state of politics in the country.

Last election, the Labor Party may have won a majority of seats, but it most certainly lost the people's mandate. Its vote share tells the real story: a growing rejection by everyday people of the old, dirty politics. If the momentum keeps building—and I guarantee that it will—Labor had better watch out at election time, because the stakes have never been higher, and our movement has never been more ready to get together and do the work to save our planet from this climate corruption.

Read the transcript in Hansard here.

4 June 2025

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No matter who you are or what you do, everyone has the right to share in the wellbeing of our country.

But at the moment the essentials so many of us need – a place to call home, food on the table, and everyday essentials like electricity, internet, medicine and water – are simply out of reach.

Instead of supporting us, our government is choosing to prop up huge corporations with massive subsidies, and to give away our collective wealth through record tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to live paycheck to paycheck or trapped in the dehumanising bureaucracy of our existing welfare system.

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The Universal Wellbeing Payment is for everyone. Help us make it happen.

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Six billion tonnes of emissions: Labor lights the fuse on a climate bomb

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