Dr WOODRUFF (Franklin) - Madam Deputy Speaker, the Greens do not support this motion. We cannot congratulate the Prime Minister for the result at the federal election because it was a result that reflects the very deep divisions in the community. These divisions are stoked by money, by lobbyists, funding from corporations, big money that goes into feeding campaigns that are based on lies, falsehoods and divisive attitudes, about how we should live together as a country, how we should see each other and that peddle mistruths about science, about religious beliefs, about morality, about the sorts of things the good-hearted people of Australia have in their hearts and souls.
The election result did not dispirit me. Many progressive voters were dispirited by the election result and felt that it said something bad about the state of Australians. I did not see it that way. I think Australians are good-hearted people, Australians have not changed, but what Australians got at that election was no real information. There is no opportunity to really understand the complexity of the issues that are facing us. Every effort was made by the Liberals and by the Labor Party to avoid grappling with the biggest issues of our time.
The ones that are really are going to drive a wedge between the richer and the poorer people, between the haves and the have nots, between the people who are able to move and adapt and people who, because they have neither the ability nor the fortune to be able to do that, will be stuck in places responding to an increasingly impoverished society. One that is continuing to confront extreme changes in climate that are already having devastating impacts on society but will continue to have devastating impacts on our economy.
The Coalition is now locked into a stance against climate action. The Labor Party, despite what it said at the election, has reverted to type. It reveals to Australians what the Labor Party stands for, which is continuing to mine coal and export coal. The Queensland Labor Premier a few hours ago was abusing the federal government for the delay in approving the Adani coal mine. Shame on the Labor Party for pretending to the Australian people they actually cared about the climate emergency we are in.
Shame on them for failing to grapple with the future and the changing workforce. Shame on the Liberal Party for also failing to grapple with that. As a country we have to come to terms with the fact that our largest export industry is killing us all. It is killing the planet. Whether we like it not the world community is not going to keep carving out a special niche for Australia to export coal indefinitely. We will be left in a hole, without a plan for jobs, without a transition to the future and an increasing climate emergency.
A pox on both your houses.