On June 25, federal trade minister Simon Crean signed a deal to export up to 20 million tonnes of dried brown coal to Vietnam. The deal was signed with ironically-named Victorian company Environmental Clean Technologies (ECT). Fifty people protested outside the venue in Southbank where the deal was signed, despite the rain and only a few hours notice of the event.
Australian Greens deputy leader Christine Milne condemned the deal. She told the ABC on June 25 that although voters “would have been encouraged by the Prime Minister saying yesterday that she is serious about a carbon price, it's no use talking about a carbon price in Australia if at the same time you are going to rev-up coal exports to other parts of the world to make climate change worse”.