The new federal MP for the Queensland seat of Flynn was a founding member of a club formed to promote climate science denial, and was a signatory to an international statement claiming “there is no climate emergency”.
Carol Sparks, the former Glen Innes Severn Council mayor who attracted national attention during the black summer bushfires, will challenge Barnaby Joyce at the federal election with a clarion call on climate change action.
A re-elected Coalition would pour $1bn into Great Barrier Reef conservation projects over the next decade, the government says, just months after campaigning to prevent the reef being listed as “in danger” by the world heritage committee.