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February 08, 2007
Both Ian McFarlane, the Industry Minister, and the Prime Minister are on the public record as sceptics of the connection between greenhouse emissions and climate change. The PM is currently trying to cover his tracks, backtrack and move away from his history of defending an untenable position to protect the coal industry and high energy users.
Alan Moir
I watched Malcolm Turnbull in Question Time yesterday.The Howard Government is on the ball, rising sea levels are nothing to worry about, and the ALP is simply engaged in a fear campaign (panic mongering over global warming) and were dogmatists who refused to doubt. It wasn't very plausible, even with the barrister's theatrics. But at least Turrnbull is rescuing a defensive Howard who can say little more than economy and jobs and that he will not "sacrifice" the jobs of coalminers with knee-jerk environmental policies that damage Australia's international competitiveness.
As Turnbull says the Coalition is adapting to, rather than dealing with, climate change. It needs to adapt because Howard has vetoed plan after plan on emissions trading since 1997, even though it accepted that his clean coal and nuiclear power solutions are commercially unviable without a price on carbon.
The postion Turnbull has to defend whilst saying the government is on the ball is that Australia's mining and minerals and coal-fired electricity generation industries have to be protected at all costs; since Australia contributes only 1.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, so only a global response will be effective; and that Australia shouldn't undertake measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions unless all other countries are locked into taking the same measures. The assumption that there is a conflict between the environment and the economy — and that Australia has no choice but to choose the economy.
Why is this unreasonable? Because it is stated that any other position is a fanatical one based on fear mongering. This is what pases for "debate" in federal Parliament. Since A global trading system is decades away.
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Did someone put a band-aid on that hole in the ozone layer that was going to kill us all or did the whole thing just get boring and untopical?