Bandt & Whish-Wilson Presser in Hobart

Transcript of media conference with Adam Bandt MHR, Leader of the Australian Greens, and Peter Whish-Wilson, Greens Senator for Tasmania, Elizabeth Pier, Hobart, 2 May 2022.

Adam Bandt

Adam Bandt, Leader of the Greens, and I am thrilled to be here to launch our Tasmanian election campaign.

This is the most critical election in a generation and the Greens are on the march. The Greens are poised to be the most powerful third party in the next parliament, and will use balance of power to kick the Liberals out and to push the next government to act on the climate crisis by tech that are ready to start again or the Greens are set to be the most powerful third party in the next parliament and in balance of power the Greens will kick the Liberals out and will push the next government to tackle the climate crisis by leaving coal and gas in the ground and also by leaving Tasmanian forests as standing, but also tackle the cost of living crisis by getting dental and mental health into Medicare and building affordable housing and wiping student debt. In balance of power, the Greens will kick the Liberals out and push the next government to act on the issues that matter. We’re seeing rising support right across the country, including here in Tasmania, because we are the only party this election that is tackling the big issues, big issues like the climate crisis, but also the cost of living crisis by getting dental into Medicare and building affordable housing.

Tasmania has the chance to have a very powerful seat at the table in the next parliament by re-electing Peter Whish-Wilson as the Senator for Tasmania, in balance of power, the Greens will be key to passing laws in the next parliament and to making things happen, an imbalance of power. We want to kick the Liberals out, but then work with the next government to say we need to tackle the climate crisis. We need to get dental into Medicare, and we need more money for Tasmania’s hospitals. We will fight for a better deal for the state and a better deal for people right across the country. We’re really buoyed by the results that we’re seeing in the commentary and in the polls at the moment, because it shows people are hearing our message at this election. We’ve got a terrible government, but a vision-less opposition, and neither of them are tackling the big issues that the country is facing. In balance of power, the Greens will push the next government to tackle the housing crisis and to tackle the climate crisis.

Peter Whish-Wilson

I want to talk about PEP11, oil and gas drilling. So Scott Morrison, our prime minister was prepared to stage an extraordinary intervention as the prime minister by banning an oil and gas drilling project off New South Wales. New South Wales has never seen oil and gas drilling off its coasts. And in his media release, which included statements from six Liberal candidates, they said it was because they didn’t want to risk those coastlines. They had environmental concerns. And this project didn’t have a social licence. By the way, it’s the only oil and gas project the only fossil fuel project that the coalition and the Labor Party has ever publicly opposed.

We’ve been calling now for the last six weeks for the Liberal government to do the same thing off Tasmania’s coastline. There is a proposed drilling project off the coast west coast of King Island and north-west Tasmania that could potentially discover up to a trillion cubic feet of gas, one of the biggest gas deposits in our nation’s history, which, if burned, will just contribute to our warming oceans, and the loss of our reefs and marine habitats and damage to our fisheries. Why won’t Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese do the same thing they did in New South Wales, in Tasmania, and get behind King Islanders and those many thousands in north-west Tasmania who oppose this project? If it’s good enough for northern New South Wales, it should be good enough for Tasmania. If they do care about the environment, and they care about social licence, stop being hypocrites and actually put your money where your mouth is.

This should be an issue that the people have read and vote on. And both for Labor candidates and the Liberal candidates. They’ve got to stop their double speak on this and actually come up with a firm position. The Greens are introducing a private member’s bill, which has been drafted, which will ban oil and gas drilling off Tasmania’s coastlines. We’ll do that in the next parliament. But people need to know what they’re voting for. Not only will this project risk our coastlines with more seismic testing, which has already been proven to damage fisheries, we don’t want to see any oil and gas spills. We don’t want to see these coastlines industrialise; King Island and north-west Tasmania have billion dollar fisheries. They don’t need to be risked either. This is a time of climate emergency. The last thing we should be doing is exploring for oil and gas for the exact same product that when we burn it warms our oceans is killing the Barrier Reef and killing our beautiful precious habitat with our giant kelp forests off Tasmania

Journalist – Laura Beavis

This election, what if the next government is a Liberal government? How much power will you have in that case?

Peter Whish-Wilson

Well, whoever forms government’s going to need to talk to the Greens. I don’t think we will be forming government with the Liberals. We made it really clear we’re preferencing Labor ahead of the Liberals; Adam has made it abundantly clear today and around the country in the last month. The Greens will be hoping to support Labor in a new government. And we’ll be there to keep the bosses honest.

Journalist – Laura Beavis

Can you I suppose what can the Greens if the Greens are elected in the Senate in Tasmania how can that benefit people?

Peter Whish-Wilson

Well, the Greens have been there with a Senate seat in Tasmania since 1996. I replaced Bob Brown who gave his first speech to the Senate in 1996. And he was there and followed by Christine Milne. Everybody knows what the Greens stands for, we’ve been consistent in fighting for the environment. In fact, Bob talked about climate action in 1996 in his very first speech. We delivered the clean energy package which Adam was part of the negotiations on with the Labor government last time we formed balance of power. It’s the only time emissions have fallen in this country. We delivered billions of dollars for clean energy, the Renewable Energy Agency. And as Adam said in the speech today, we’ve gotten dental care into Medicare for kids. I mean, we’ve got a track record. So that’s why people should vote for the Greens in the Senate. That’s why they should vote for the Greens right around the country. We’re close to achieving that balance of power again. And, you know, everybody knows, the Greens won’t sell out and we can’t be bought

Tasmanian Times

We’re on track to lose 12- to 15,000 lives to COVID in Australia this year. What would Greens change at the federal policy level to better manage the pandemic?

Adam Bandt

One of the things we’ve learned through the pandemic is that our public health system gets us through and it needs to be supported. And that means supporting all of the people who work in our public health system. Now, during the times of lock-downs and social distancing restrictions, you’d have hoped that the federal government and state governments were using that time to build up our public hospitals and our public health system, especially because a lot of surgeries were put on hold and waiting lists for elective surgeries have grown.

And instead, what we find is that public hospitals and our public health system are still under strain, but to deal with the pressures of COVID. That may last for some time, but also to make sure the public health system is there for everyone else. We need to move to a system where there is a 50-50 funding split between state and federal governments for the growth in new hospital funding. Now we need to stop the blame game between state and federal governments by changing the law so that it is clear that there will be 50-50 funding growth for all new funding coming into public health hospitals. And with a new body sitting over the top that will stop the finger pointing between state and federal governments but ensure that money goes to hospitals and our public health care system where it’s needed.

One of the other things that we’ve learned from COVID and from the pandemic is that if you lift people out of poverty, you keep our society healthier. You don’t want people having to make decisions like going to work when they’re potentially infectious, just because it’s the only way that they can make ends meet. And one of the things we’ve got to do is make sure that in a wealthy country like ours, no one is living in poverty. And if we lift income support to above the poverty line, we not only lift people out of poverty, but we make our country healthier and more resilient to things like pandemics because people don’t then put themselves and the public at risk just by trying to make ends meet.

Peter Whish-Wilson

Could I just say something quickly, just about climate change. It’s clear that both parties don’t want to talk about climate change. They don’t want to talk about energy. They don’t want to talk about reducing emissions. They don’t want to talk about the IPCC report that tells us we’ve got three more years under business as usual scenarios before the Paris target is unachievable. Only the Greens are out there talking about a plan to transition to 100% renewables and meet 2030 emissions targets. My message to Tasmanian voters, for anyone who cares about future generations, about the environment and about this planet, the most important thing you can do, the most important message you can send to politicians who won’t tackle this climate emergency is to vote Green. Whoever forms government after May 21 needs to see the Green vote going up around the country. They need to see that signal that it’s just not good enough to leave the greatest challenge of our time, their vision for tackling that, off the election agenda.

Tasmanian Times

We understand that the federal government’s been sitting on a state of the environment report since about December last year. Should they release that before the election so Australian voters can get consider what the report says?

Adam Bandt

Yes, absolutely. I mean, this government won’t tell us what’s happening with the environment, doesn’t tell us what’s happening with the climate. It doesn’t even tell us what’s happening within its own ministerial offices. This is one of the most secretive governments that we’ve seen for a very long time. People have a right to know what is going on. That’s one of the reasons why we absolutely need to establish a federal corruption watchdog with teeth. And the Greens in balance of power in the Senate will make that happen before the end of the year. I was the first person to introduce an anti-corruption watchdog bill into the House of Representatives. The Greens have been fighting for this for a long time. It’s time to end the secrecy and have a transparent government and that will start by having a federal corruption watchdog.