Last month, Parliament House hosted its largest-ever delegation of doctors, who left their clinics and stepped into politicians’ offices to sound the alarm over Middle Arm.
Middle Arm is a controversial fossil fuel development that would enable the fracking of the Beetaloo Basin, unleashing a 1.4 billion tonne carbon bomb into the atmosphere.
It’s a fossil fuel project the scientists and the doctors say we can’t have.
After dragging its feet - and denying Middle Arm was a fossil fuel development - I welcome the Government’s decision to support the Greens’ motion in the Senate to hold an inquiry into
Middle Arm.
That's what happens when communities and their representatives stand with doctors and scientists and demand the government take climate change seriously.
The inquiry will examine the climate, environmental, health and cultural heritage impacts of the project, among other related matters.
How can a government in good conscience fund Middle Arm to the tune of $1.9 billion when unprecedented fires are raging across the globe, Australia just experienced its hottest winter ever, and scientists are warning deadly heatwaves and bushfires will soon become the norm?
We are in a climate crisis. Expanding Australia’s gas industry will cause devastating environmental damage, risk the health of our children and grandchildren, and may jeopardise our economic future.
If the Government keeps approving new coal and gas projects, we may well become the first generation in human history to leave the world a worse place than we found it.
I welcome the inquiry and I look forward to its findings.