Gary Oliver’s ancestors have been looking after the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef around Mosman in far north Queensland for over 50,000 years. He has served in the Australian army and has extensive public service experience. Oliver is the Greens candidate for Leichhardt, a huge electorate which runs from Cairns up through Cape York to the Torres Strait.
I was excited to interview him for the NoFibs #ReefReport and I met up with him at the students Climate Strike outside Warren Entsch’s office last Friday.
Key messages
“Makarrata”
“A truth justice commission has happened in every Commonwealth country except for Australia.”
“Close the gap.”
“Aboriginal people have had to do more with less.”
“One indicator is Aboriginal children in care. At the time of the Rudd apology there were 3600 Aboriginal children in care. Today there are about 18,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait children in care.”
“62,000 jobs are dependent on the reef. We have to protect the reef.”
“Education is our third-largest export. James Cook University has a beautiful campus we could expand on that to create jobs.”
“Public housing is a solution for poverty.”
“The students on Climate Strike are the voice of the future.”
“We need to enact a Climate Emergency Bill now.”
“We need to bring (electric) power back into government hands.”
“Micro grids are the new sustainable jobs.”
“To save the reef no new coal mines and phase out coal by 2030.”
“We need to transition those coal mining communities to new sustainable jobs.”
“19.4-billion-dollar package from taxing the three largest companies that currently pay no tax.”
“There will be more jobs in renewables.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
