The Greens today announced a plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef, including a $2 billion fund and a legal cap on run-off pollution fix water quality, as well as action on global warming and a stronger role for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Greens Deputy Leader Senator Larissa Waters said:

“This is the critical election for the Reef.  Our best scientists are telling us that could lose the Reef within a generation unless we take immediate action on global warming and fixing water quality.  

Changing arrangements for work for the dole measures but keeping in place tougher requirements for Aboriginal communities shows discrimination is entrenched in the budget, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.

“We welcome the Government’s admission that work for the dole is ineffective but it is concerning that the Government has failed to wind back measures in remote Aboriginal communities.

"Yet again, we see there is no difference between the old parties on digging up fossil fuels to ruin our Great Barrier Reef.

"The Labor Government wants to take advice from a former Liberal Minister who infamously said - 'We've got to make sure that every molecule of gas that can come out of the ground does so'.

"This is a slap in the face for regional Queensland communities dealing with the destruction that coal seam gas and underground coal gasification has wrecked on their wellbeing, land, water and climate.

The Australian Greens are concerned Labor is using consultations with business as an excuse to water down its climate pollution reduction targets. 

"There's no arguing with the science, which is clear on the need for deep pollution cuts to avoid catastrophic global warming and economic shocks," Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and climate change spokesperson, said.

"Labor's current draft target for 2030 is at the bottom of the range proposed by the Climate Change Authority for a two-thirds chance of avoiding 2 degrees warming

Revelations today that the Liberal Government has watered down the environmental conditions of 21 projects, including coal mines, in the past nine months are incredibly concerning.

“The Liberal Government is trying to fool communities by saying they have set so-called strict conditions when approving mines that threaten our land, water and climate,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and environment spokesperson, said.

Responding to Environment Minister Hunt's announcement of Australia's National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said:

"While adaptation is an important part of dealing with the locked-in impacts of our already changed climate, it is no excuse for the Government to continue to drive global warming with its dangerous coal obsession.

The Greens have secured an Australian-first register of foreign owned water entitlements, in agreeing to support government legislation that gives the Foreign Investment Review Board greater scope to check if sales of Australian land to overseas buyers is in the national interest.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The Greens have secured an Australian-first register of foreign owned water entitlements, in agreeing to support government legislation that gives the Foreign Investment Review Board greater scope to check if sales of Australian land to overseas buyers is in the national interest.

“The Australian Greens will not support the Government’s cuts to Family Tax Benefit payments that will hurt single parents, grandparents carers and low income coupled families. The Government's package of cuts targets some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

“The Australian Greens will also not support Labor’s proposal for a revised cut that will only target coupled families on a low income with children over 13”, said Australian Greens spokesperson on families, Senator Rachel Siewert.  

The Australian Greens are urging the cross-bench Senators to continue to block the Turnbull Government's plan to give all federal environmental approval powers to state or even local governments.

"It is deeply disappointing that Malcolm Turnbull is pushing Tony Abbott's plan to take an axe to environmental protection," Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens Deputy Leader and environment spokesperson, said.