So let’s have a look at the Australia Institute’s coal mine tracker since the Albanese government came to power:

There can be no new coal mines if we are to avoid dangerous climate change.

Yet, since May 2022, the Federal Environment Minister has approved 10 new coal mines or expansions with 2,449 million tonnes of lifetime emissions.

Approved Projects – 10

Total Coal – 864 million tonnes

Total emissions – 2,449 million tonnes

Australia is the third largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Instead of closing coal mines, the Federal Government is looking to open more.

There are 22 additional proposals for new or expanded coal mines currently waiting for Federal Government approval. Approving 10 new coal mines goes against our climate goals. Approving 32 new coal mines, and the 13.1 billion tonnes of emissions they would cause, is incompatible with limiting dangerous climate change.

But emissions are going up under the Albanese government, as they have continued to go up under every Australian government, because they won’t let go of coal or gas.

Madeleine King is obviously uncomfortable being asked these questions and says:

Well the report, you know, it says what it says, what I am assured of, and I know and we voted on, is that we know government has done more for climate than the Australian government under Anthony Albanese.

So we will continue to push lower emissions down.

We’ve got the safeguard mechanism in that is pushing down emissions. When there’s high demand for power and energy use, and indeed, the critical minerals I spoke of earlier we’ll need some of these energy sources to make the green energy transition happen.

So you know, we have to work within our own emission standards within our own goals, but also help the region achieve those goals.

But the data shows what is happening is not enough. Does Australia need to revise it’s targets (the truth is yes, yes we do).

King falls back on the same old lines – including cookies for industry (which is the main job of the resources minister):

I’m going to leave that for Minister Bowen to talk about more widely, that’s his portfolio. But the truth is, we are working hard to drive down emissions, and so is industry.

We can’t do these things overnight, and we might want to, and I accept these reports exist around the emission levels, but people have to have confidence that they will be able to have energy as well.

So we need to work together to make sure the pathway is achievable. We have ambitious goals on the climate. We’ve been put back 10 years by the former government. We’ve taken action in a pretty efficient manner in three years.

Resources minister Madeleine King has spoken to ABC RN Breakfast, where she gave the lines on Anthony Albanese’s upcoming phone call with Donald Trump and her regular defence of Australia’s mining industry.

Faced with the reality that the world is exceeding the global warming threshold of 1.5 degrees (and remember – that was just where the world was trying to stop it – warming was happening and with it mass loss and a change to life as we know it, the whole point of the Paris Agreement was to try and limit how much warming happened) King falls back on the old lines:

No Australian government has done more to act on climate change than the Albanese Labor government. (emissions have gone up.)

We’ve introduced legislation – there has to be a pathway to net zero.

And the quickest way to, you know, lose confidence in the transition among the wider community is to make sure people you know, lack energy or can’t, you know, get hold of the power they need to manufacture things.

So we have to be really sensible in how we do have that pathway to net zero.

Right. So burning planet aside, Australia has to be ‘sensible’. So what about the coal and gas that Australia exports?

But we also need the region to decarbonise, and each country has a pathway for that, including Japan and China and South Korea and Singapore, and part of their plans involve our gas.

That’s absolutely right, but they’re displacing coal with gas, which is lower emission. And that’s not the choice we may have made in Australia. We’ve got other options. We can turn to renewables, and we are. We’re investing in renewables.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has been on the morning television carousel ahead of the Tuesday parliament sitting.

He was asked on ABC TV Breakfast about Australia’s relationship with the United States and said:

I’m very concerned about the impacts of Donald Trump being president. Donald Trump is dangerous – dangerous for climate, dangerous for peace, and dangerous for democracy. Today, it’s steel and aluminium, and who knows what it’s going to be tomorrow?

As Malcolm Turnbull said, you’ve got to take on the bullies – if you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.

But also, I think this shows this is the wrong time for Australian to be joined at the hip to a country being led by Donald Trump at the moment.

Australia just handed over the best part of $1 billion as part of the AUKUS deal, and there’s more to come. And whatever you think about the AUKUS – and I’m very concerned about deal and don’t support it, but whatever you think about it, it does beggar belief that Australia is handing over billions of dollars of public money to the United States and then facing potential threats of tariffs on our products. It does suggest that it really is time for Australia to chart its own way and start to have a relationship that’s start to have a relationship that’s based on our own best interests, rather than one that simply says, “We’ll do whatever Donald Trump,as head of the United States, wants.”

The Greens will introduce a bill into the senate today, which would ban oil and gas drilling in the Great Australian Bight.

The way to do that?

Have the area nominated for consideration as a World Heritage Site. There are currently no active licences for gas and oil exploration in the Bight, which Sarah Hanson-Young says makes it the best time to do it.

“World Heritage Protection is a priority for South Australia and the Greens will push for it in a hung parliament.

“The Albanese Government has dragged its feet when it comes to supporting a World Heritage nomination, despite the pleas of community, industry, and Traditional Owners. The Greens are acting now to force action before it’s too late. 

“The Great Australian Bight is an SA icon and is home to a vast array of unique marine life. 85 per cent of the species that live in the Bight are found nowhere else on Earth. It is an essential calving sanctuary for southern right whales, and a feeding ground for endangered sea lions, sharks, tuna and migratory sperm whales.

“An oil spill or drilling disaster would not only be an environmental catastrophe but with ten thousand fishing and tourism jobs reliant on the Bight, it would be an economic disaster too.”

The assistant minister for trade, Tim Ayres spoke to ABC radio AM this morning where he was asked about the Trump tariffs and said:

Well, it’s not a surprise that that this announcement that was made yesterday, but there’s there’s a long way to go to understand the parameters of what this announcement that was, you know, reported from a conversation on an airplane yesterday.

There is a long way to go advocating for Australia’s interest in a calm and effective way. And and you cite the precedent of the last time this occurred.

I mean, I think that is a useful precedent. It took a significant amount of time. It took coordination across government, engagement at ministerial and official ambassadorial level. And, you know, it took 12 months to work those issues through with our American partners.

We are going to approach this in a calm and consistent way, focused on the national interest, not megaphone diplomacy, not responding to every development, or commentating on every development, but really in a disciplined way, focused on the Australian interest.

I think that’s what Australians have come to expect from the Albanese government on these trade questions, and that’s the approach that the Prime Minister will take today, and that trade minister Don Farrell will take, and everybody else engaged in this work will take, we won’t be taking, you know, pot shots at, in domestic politics we will be focused on the national interest.

Meanwhile, the Greens are also in election mode (everyone is, it’s exhausting) and have released its latest plan to tax billionaires to pay for health, dental and public transport for Australians.

The Robin Hood measures have been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and would see Australia’s 150 billionaires “pay an annual 10% tax on their net wealth with a 10% limit on capital flight in any year”.

The plan is expected to raise $23 billion over the forward estimates and $50 billion over the decade the Greens say.

The Greens say that during the 2010 minority government, the Greens won dental into Medicare for kids and in 2025, cost of living measures are the plan.

Adam Bandt says:

“With a minority Government, the Greens can keep Peter Dutton out and tax billionaires to fund dental into Medicare, seeing the GP for free and real action on the housing and climate crisis.

“The Greens will keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act.

While Nick McKim says there is no reason not to:

Gina Rinehart should not have $40.6 billion while people in this country are sleeping in tents and cars. That’s the economic system that Labor and the Liberals are defending.

The Greens’ plan will force billionaires to start giving back.

The federal government has had a win with its Future Made in Australia package, getting through the production tax credits through the senate, with the help of the Greens and some independents. That just means – reduced tax per kilogram of critical minerals and green hydrogen produced in Australia. But not uranium. The Greens won that as part of its negotiations.

The tax credits only happen after production has happened in Australia, so there is no way for companies to get around manufacturing in Australia, if they want the tax break.

The Greens negotiated with Labor to get the bill over the line after the Coalition opposed it, and you may have enjoyed some of Michaelia Cash’s surprise and verbal meltdown in the chamber yesterday when it became obvious Labor had the numbers and was bringing the bill on for debate and a vote.

Cash’s main problem was that fossil fuel mining companies weren’t involved, so had anyone thought of them?

Hello and welcome to another day of sitting and Australia Institute Live.

Australia has found a defender in the US Congress, with Representative Joe Courtney (a Democrat, of course) speaking out against Donald Trump’s planned 25% tariff on steel and aluminium, which at this point includes “everyone”, including Australia.

The ABC reports Rep Courtney believed that to be “completely needless’ and “almost an insult” to Australia, given the relationship between the two countries and Australia’s strategic position in the Pacific.

The ABC quotes Courtney as saying:

“Australia is a key strategic ally for our country. They are positioned in the Indo-Pacific at a place where, again, tensions are sky high and we need their input, their help in terms of making sure that we are going to rebalance that security environment and protect the rule of law and the Indo-Pacific.

“Instead, what we’re seeing is a completely needless, almost insult to the people of Australia by raising tariffs of Australian products coming into this country.”

Anthony Albanese had a previously scheduled phone call with Trump, where he will raise the tariffs, yesterday taking to floor of question time to say he will “always stand up for Australia”.

Cool beans. Now, a reminder that it is the importer who pays the tariffs, not Australia. And it’s another example of what Dr Emma Shortis has been saying about for sometime – that the ‘relationship’ with the US is not what Australia thinks it is.

Malcolm Turnbull said the same thing, telling the ABC’s 7.30 program:

“Do not be misled by the idea that there’s any altruism in Washington towards Australia. Australians love to delude themselves to this.

“If we want to be respected, we have to stand up. The United States government, especially with Donald Trump, acts in the national interest of the United States.”

You may remember the leaked transcript of the phone call between Turnbull and Trump the first time Trump was in the White House. This isn’t a new line from Turnbull.

We’ll cover all the day’s events as more of the mess unfolds – you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. I am fumbling with my third coffee.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.