Greens senator Nick McKim melts down at climate sceptic politician Matt Canavan: 'Mate, shut your...
A Greens senator unleashed on a climate sceptic Liberal National Party rival with a no-holds-barred attack in the on Tuesday night. In a wild night in Canberra, Nick McKim told Matt Canavan: 'Shut your mouth - people are dying because of... sociopaths like you.' The angry exchange of views came during a speech where Mr McKim noted: 'This planet has just experienced the three hottest days on record.' The Tasmanian senator said: 'I'm usually an optimistic person but I just want to say...' - prompting Queenslander Mr Canavan to interject, quipping: 'You hide it well'. That outraged Mr McKim, who lashed out with an extraordinary verbal assault, erupting: 'Mate, you can shut your mouth.' That earned Senator McKim a rebuke from Senator Jess Walsh, the acting deputy president of the Senate. 'Senator McKim,' she shouted, as Mr Canavan also interjected using words not clearly picked up by microphones in the chamber. But Mr McKim was not deterred, and repeated his call for his rival to keep quiet. 'You can shut your mouth He said: 'I withdraw, and I'm not going to cop interjections from sociopaths like Senator Canavan. I will not cop it and I won't...' His halfhearted withdrawal earned him another slapdown from Dr Walsh, who told him 'resume your seat' and then asked him again to withdraw his comments. 'I will withdraw, and I will say... that the sociopaths who run fossil fuel corporations on this planet who are literally destroying the lives and the futures of billions of people,' Mr McKim said. He added that people on both houses of parliament 'have got a lot to answer for (including) death, disease, displacement, starvation, people dying of thirst'. 'Arable farming lands turning into desert and, most likely, billions of people dead by the end of this century and the collapse of the ecosystems that actually support all human life on this planet,' he said. Senator McKim then had another go at his LNP rival. 'That's what people like Senator Canavan have got to answer for,' he said. 'He can sit there and smirk and laugh about it as much as he likes, but history will regard what he has said and done in this place as an utter disgrace.' Mr Canavan was unconcerned, though, and even seemed to be happy with the attention. 'I feel like the luckiest bloke in Australia,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday morning. 'In the middle of a housing crisis I am living rent free in the Greens' head.'