NSW COVID cases grow, Victoria COVID cases grow, Monkeypox Australia cases grow; China, Indonesia mail to be screened for foot and mouth disease; 47th Parliament begins as climate change on the agenda;

Sticking with climate policy for a moment, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says banning fossil fuel exports and new coal and gas mines to try and reduce climate emissions won’t stop global warming but would devastate the Australian economy.

The Greens boosted their representation in federal parliament to a record high at the last election on a platform of faster action on climate change. The party wants all new coal and gas mines blocked and a moratorium on fossil fuel exports.

Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Albanese ruled out such a move, saying it would harm Australia while doing nothing to reduce emissions.

“We won’t be implementing that policy, that’s the policy of the Greens … that’s not the policy of the Labor Party and we won’t be supporting it because that will have a devastating impact on our economy,” he said.

“If Australia, today, said we are not going to export any more coal, what you would see is a lot of jobs lost, you would see a significant loss to our economy, significantly less taxation revenue for education and health and other services.

“And that coal wouldn’t lead to a reduction in global emissions, what you would see is a replacement with coal from other countries that is likely to produce higher emissions, because of the quality of our product.”

Read what else the PM had to say here.