The Australian Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has called on people to join disruptive climate protests to pressure the Albanese government to stop opening new fossil fuel mines, saying he plans to help blockade the country’s largest coal port.
He has also written to the leaders of 16 Pacific Island nations suggesting they should make any support for an Australia bid to host a UN climate summit conditional on the government “taking stronger climate action”.
Speaking to climate activists in Melbourne on Wednesday night, Bandt said Labor was “hellbent on opening more coal and gas mines”.
He said more people needed to “get in behind” groups that engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience, naming Disrupt Burrup Hub, Rising Tide and Extinction Rebellion.
Bandt compared frontline climate activism to “the types of civil disobedience that have been so crucial throughout history in securing change, from ending slavery to gaining women’s suffrage, from workers’ rights to civil rights”.
“The Liberals and Nationals were kicked out of office for thumbing their nose at the climate crisis … but with Labor it’s somehow more disappointing because you know they know what they’re doing is wrong,” he said, according to speech extracts shared in advance.
“Some Labor MPs might not get into politics to help out [oil and gas company] Woodside, but sure enough they end up there.
“Now we need to embrace the importance of protest and civil disobedience. We must come together and fight back.”
Bandt told the event, organised by the group Rising Tide, that he hoped to join a “people’s blockade” planned at the Newcastle coal port in November.
“I hope to see you there too,” he said. “We need to celebrate our activists and open our movements up to all.”
His comments come during a heightened focus on disruptive climate protests.
In Western Australia, people connected to the group Disrupt Burrup Hub have been criticised for interrupting major sport and art exhibitions, releasing a stink bomb that caused an evacuation at Woodside headquarters, and arriving at dawn outside the home of Woodside’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill. Activists have accused the state government, police and Woodside of working together to suppress peaceful protest.
In the east, 21 people were arrested during a week of coordinated blockades at ports in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in June. Several state governments have increased maximum prison and financial penalties for activists.
Bandt said the “law is often complex, but the morality is simple”.
“We might not all want to climb a coal bridge or sit in the foyer of Woodside, but we need to back the right of people to do so, and celebrate and feel joy from their action,” he said.
In his letter to Pacific leaders, Bandt said he supported a call from the Pacific Elders’ Voice, a group including former leaders of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Palau, that there was no hurry to support Australia’s bid to co-host the Cop31 UN climate conference in 2026 while the country continued to support fossil fuel expansion.
He said the letter was “not to add to the list of voices attempting to influence the Pacific, but a genuine offer of any support that will assist in maintaining your leverage and momentum for a fossil fuel-free Pacific”.
“As you are of course aware, Pacific nations not only currently hold a lot of geostrategic leverage over Australia, but the Labor government is actively seeking your support to host a Cop to boost its climate credentials, further increasing your power,” Bandt wrote.
“You will rightly act in your own nations’ interests, but I want to inform you that any external pressure will also assist the significant domestic push to stop the Labor government from dangerously opening new coal and gas projects, which threaten both you and us.”
Bandt suggested Pacific leaders consider asking the Australian government to commit to changing environment laws to stop new large emitting projects, setting “real” emissions targets that did not rely on carbon offsets, and ending fossil fuel subsidies, including $1.5b support for the Middle Arm industrial and gas precinct near Darwin.
The letter follows the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, visiting Fiji last week to meet with Pacific counterparts.
Australia is considered well-placed to host Cop31, having won support from several members of the “Western Europe and Others” group that will decide where the meeting is held.
Speaking before flying out of the Fijian capital of Suva, Bowen said there was strong support for a joint Australia-Pacific bid to stage the conference. He said he told ministers Australia was moving from getting 35% of electricity from renewable sources today to 82% in 2030.
“It’s been a good discussion about how fast the transition [to renewable energy] in Australia is going, and it’s going very, very fast,” he said. “But we have a lot more to do.
“As I said to the ministers, I want people to leave Cop31, if Australia hosts it, saying, ‘Wow, that really was a Pacific Cop.’ And by that it means a chance to elevate Pacific issues at a time when the Pacific has the world’s attention.”
