On Tuesday, 13 October 2026, I reflected on the oncoming El Nino and our government's reckless commitment to coal, including its continued reliance on what's called the "drug dealer's defence".
You can read my explanation of the drug dealer's defence below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard) here.
As we have heard from the member for Thuringowa, climate change is no longer a future problem; it is upon us now and biting hard. Five days into spring, Brisbane reached a high of 34.4 degrees. The incoming El Nino is so extreme it does not even have a scientific category. Renowned climate scientist Daniel Swain is telling us that it does not even fit on the same axis we have used for these events. BoM is predicting deadly heatwaves and at least one severe cyclone in Queensland this summer because of warmer air and oceans.
The UN’s Limiting overshoot report tells us that global warming will now exceed 1½ degrees of average warming across the world. What we do now is absolutely crucial in limiting the duration and peak of global warming into the future. That ‘we’ includes people in this room who continue to approve new coal, funding it with taxpayer dollars and acting as fossil fuel industry cheerleaders. They are using the drug dealers’ defence to justify new coalmines. What is the drug dealers’ defence? It is when they say, ‘I’m just supplying a market that clearly exists. What someone does with my product is not my responsibility. If I don’t give it to them, then obviously someone else will. Plus, my product is the best.’ That is a morally vacuous argument that drug dealers use, and it is one that fossil fuel corporations and the major parties use, too.
Here is the problem: there is no such thing as clean coal, just as we keep hearing from the other side that there is no safe way to shoot up heroin. Unlike dealers, coal corporations and their political cheerleaders are not just supplying an industry; they are wrecking the entire planet. Dirty or slightly less dirty: all coal counts against a finite global carbon budget. Our coal is here. It is plentiful. It has a relatively low production cost. If we take it off the market it cannot be easily replaced, except with renewable alternatives. It is our coal. It is our responsibility to keep it in the ground. Australia is a wealthy country with extraordinary untapped renewable resources. We are the second largest exporter of coal in the world, though, and we have a responsibility to reduce global emissions.
Mr Dillon interjected.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Krause): Member for Gregory!
Mr BERKMAN: All of this is why the High Court last week found that greenhouse gas emissions, whether they are released here or overseas, must be considered in fossil fuel approvals. It is global warming, not local warming. The atmosphere does not care where coal is burnt. Our coal industry is terrified of being held responsible. They have the LNP on an embarrassingly tight leash. Our Premier is so pathetically submissive and subservient to the industry that he has said he will legislate to override that ruling if necessary. Don’t try to blame the buyer or pretend emissions burned overseas will spare us the consequences here. Take some responsibility and keep our coal in the ground.