Indigenous activist tells Albanese: stop talking, start listening on coal and gas

Rikki Dank, a Gudanji and Wakaya traditional owner, fronted a media pack at Cop31 in Antalya, Turkey, in traditional dress and aimed straight at the prime minister. She said Anthony Albanese needed to listen to Australians who say no more new coal, oil and gas. Her message to him was blunt: stop speaking and start listening.

Greta Thunberg stood beside her, flanked by other advocates including a Nepalese MP who helped rescue people from a landslide after an August glacier collapse that killed more than 1,500 people. Thunberg said the situation in these spaces could not be less under control. The planet is not dying, she said, it is being killed — and by the same people often thought to come to the rescue. She called greater Australian climate action common sense.

Dank is one of 10 Australians behind a complaint to the UN human rights committee, known as the Hard Truths case, which argues the government has failed to protect them from climate pollution, including coal and LNG exports that rank among the world's highest. Lawyers expect a resolution within 18 months. A committee declaration is not legally binding, but a finding against Australia would be a major embarrassment and carry real political weight. Dank said her Country is being fracked, her drinking water poisoned and her history erased as they speak.

Albanese pushed back after criticism of his six-minute opening speech on Wednesday, which did not use the phrase fossil fuels. You could pick out any number of things that were not in what was a short speech, he told the Guardian, calling it appropriate and focused on Pacific climate impacts such as rising sea levels. My speech was well received by my Pacific friends, he said, standing with Pacific leaders before a meeting of the Pacific Resilience Facility.

Australia is co-hosting the two-week talks and holds the Cop31 presidency, with a key push being a 35 by 35 pledge for 35% of end-use energy to come from electricity by 2035. UN secretary general António Guterres and several countries want the hosts to also advance Brazil's proposal from last year's Cop for national roadmaps to move away from fossil fuels. On Thursday Albanese held bilateral meetings with Bangladesh, Lebanon, Pacific leaders and UK prime minister Andy Burnham.

At an open meeting of the Pacific Resilience Facility — a fund set up with $100m from Australia to help the region adapt to climate change and recover from disasters — mining billionaire and climate advocate Andrew Forrest said his Minderoo Foundation had donated $5m. There is a vast injustice being wreaked upon the Pacific island states, he told the leaders, and you are the least responsible.