• New industry report confirms global coal demand in terminal structural decline
• Taxpayers and state governments will be left with a mine clean-up bill worth billions of dollars
• Greens release plan to transition thousands of jobs and fund rehabilitation costs

The Greens have today released a plan to deal with the structural decline in Australia's coal export sector, in response to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis that confirms the sector is in terminal decline.

The Australian Greens have today condemned the decision to allow cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park and announced plans to reintroduce a bill to protect our national parks.

"The writing is on the wall for environment in Australia, with Tony Abbott pushing his 19th century ‘environment is for man' attitude," said Senator Christine Milne, leader of the Australian Greens.

"Given Mr Abbott thinks we have too much protected forest, this outrageous assault on the integrity of our precious national parks will be just the start.

Greens Senator for Victoria, Dr Richard Di Natale, said today that the Greens will stand against any move to create a new CSG or unconventional gas mining industry in Victoria.

“Regional Victorian communities don’t want CSG or unconventional gas mining in our state, and rightly so,” said Senator Di Natale.

“Subjecting Victoria to CSG for the sake of the private profits of the big mining companies would be plain dumb when the National Water Commission has warned this risky industry threatens our water supplies, which underpin our agricultural industry.

A Greens-initiated Senate Inquiry into the health impacts of air quality is today holding a hearing in Brisbane to hear evidence from experts and local groups. The Australian Greens say that not enough is being done to protect the community from the health impacts of air pollution such as coal dust.

“There is very clear evidence that coal dust is a very serious threat to the health of Queenslanders,” said Dr Richard Di Natale, Australian Greens health spokesperson.

The Australian Greens today announced that they will introduce a bill in the Senate to establish an independent panel of expert physicians to oversee the health and mental health of asylum seekers and refugees in indefinite offshore detention.

"The Expert Health Care Panel proposed by the Greens will add some humanity to an otherwise inhumane policy" said Greens' immigration spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

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Subjects: mining, increasing the humanitarian intake, health of asylum seekers in detention, environmental protections, Tony Abbott