Di Natale dials up climate heat on Shorten

Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has pledged to lobby Labor towards more radical policies on climate change.

Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Kooyong Greens candidate Julian Burnside speak to the media whilst campaigning in Balwyn, Melbourne, yesterday. Picture: AAP

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has “reached out” to Bill Shorten and pledged to lobby Labor towards more radical policies on climate change if the opposition grabs power at the upcoming poll.

“At the moment, what he’s doing is adopting a weaker policy on climate than the policy he took in 2016, which is weaker again than the 2013 policy,” he told the ABC yesterday.

“What we need is some leadership from Bill Shorten. And the Greens, in the Senate, will work hard, co-operatively, pushing Labor, holding them to account and making sure we do what needs to be done.”

While Senator Di Natale rejected the idea that the Greens had not learnt lessons from blocking Kevin Rudd’s first emissions trading scheme, he suggested the party opposed Labor’s latest cap-and-trade scheme. “At the moment, (Mr Shorten) seems more intent on adopting the Liberal Party’s energy and climate policies than talking to the Greens,” he said.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan took aim at Senator Di Natale over his comments, saying the Greens leader had “just revealed that he is working with Bill Shorten to develop policies that would destroy jobs in regional Australia”.

“Bill Shorten must rule out any association with these radical extremist green views if he is to have any hope of winning support from Australians that rely on the farming, mining or manufacturing industries,” Senator Canavan told The Australian.

Senator Penny Wong responded to the Greens leader’s criticism, and said the party ­appeared to be mimicking its past behaviour.

“This is the same old line the Greens used when voting with (Tony) Abbott and co to torpedo Labor’s climate plan. A decade of inaction followed. I know the Greens’ priority is often on differentiating from Labor, but surely the priority is to elect a government that will act on climate.”

Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim also unleashed on Labor over refugee policy yesterday. “Labor reopened the Manus Island and Nauru detention centres, and won’t commit to closing them, despite the rampant human rights abuses there,” he tweeted.

Australia would cease exporting coal within 12 years under a Greens policy manifesto that is aimed at tackling climate change. Senator Di Natale put a 2030 date on when Australia should transition away from coal, including “both the coal we burn here for power and the coal that we export overseas’’.

Last year, coal was Australia’s highest earning export commodity, accounting for $66 billion.

Senator Di Natale also said the Adani coalmine “can’t be built’’ and declared he would spend Easter in an anti-Adani convoy being run by former Greens leader Bob Brown.

Asked whether it was feasible to shut down such a valuable ­industry, Senator Di Natale said: “(It) depends if you’re serious about climate change or not.’’

“Coal is the biggest contributor to climate change,’’ he told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“The Labor Party's dragging their heels when it comes to climate change.

“The Liberal Party are dragging their knuckles.

“We’re about to lose the Great Barrier Reef ... the Murray-­Darling Basin is on life support right now, we’ve had fires and floods, and yet we have two parties who are committing to keep ­burning coal, which is the single biggest contributor to climate change.’’