Make this the climate election - Kelly O'Shanassy

Kelly O’Shanassy wants Australians to make this “The climate election”.

The chief executive officer of the Australian Conservation Foundation was referring to the next Federal election, but she could have easily been talking about this month’s election in Victoria.

ACF chief executive officer, Kelly O'Shanassy.

Ms O’Shanassy pressed the importance of “the climate election” when she spoke at the National Press Club last month.

She began by acknowledging the Ngunnawal peoples who are the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet today and pay respect to all Elders past and present.

And then continued: “The Australian Conservation Foundation acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded and that the protection of nature and self-determination for Australia’s First People are intertwined. 

“It is now a matter of public record – which is a fancy way of saying it got a bunch of media attention – that earlier this year I met with Bill Shorten at the Great Barrier Reef to show him the dying coral, talk about climate change and well, get on his back about the Adani coal mine.

“We visited Opal Reef, which is home to vast underwater forests of staghorn and dinner plate coral.

“Stretching beyond the horizon, these coral gardens should have been one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. But it wasn’t. Because much of the coral was dead.”

Read the transcript of what she said at the press club.