Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says the climate protesters who formed a flotilla in Newcastle Harbour in an attempt to disrupt ships at the world’s largest coal port won’t accept the “financial consequences” of their worldview.
Joyce made the remarks in a politics panel interview on Seven’s Sunrise, where he was joined by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek who defended her climate record against the protester’s criticisms.
Climate protesters in kayaks attempt to block access to Newcastle coal port.Credit: Getty Images
Plibersek said she has approved ten times more renewable energy projects than coal projects.
“I’m the first environment minister to stop a coal mine, because of the impact it could have had on water going on to the Great Barrier Reef,” she said.
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“What I would say about the protests is, of course, in Australia you have a right to peacefully and safely express your view. But if you’re breaking the law, if you’re endangering others, if you’re diverting police resources, then I think you need to face the consequences of that.”
Joyce was more scathing in his assessment of the protests.
“What these people are doing is going out in the harbour and saying ‘I want Australia to be poor’,” Joyce said.
“They never suggest what pensions they want to remove or what schools they don’t want built. They don’t go out with that on their placard, they just go out and say ‘I want Australia to be poor because I have a selfish desire that I can inflict on you my worldview without accepting the consequences financially of what that means’.”
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