On a reliably frigid Canberra morning holed up in a ramshackle hotel bereft of anything resembling heating, the sound of Anthony Albanese seeping out of the clock radio to claim total credit for the passage of the carbon tax seemed too much to bear.
Today’s historic introduction of 18 separate pieces of legislation was part of a grand Labor journey decades in the making, Albo reckoned.
“It’s time to act,” he told Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National. “We’ve been talking for 19 years. We’ve had 35 parliamentary committees. We’ve had international reports from the international panel on climate change, we’ve had the Garnaut review, we’ve had the Shergold review, we’ve had commitments to putting a price on carbon adopted by both political parties going into the 2007 election. We’ve had the issue over whether we ratify Kyoto or not.
But the talk had to stop somewhere. “One day the government has to act and that day is today.”
Later in the House, Albanese calmly laid out his personal investment in the process, symbolised by his sponsorship of a private climate members’ bill under John Howard. Next up, Craig Emerson name-checked a 1989 Hawke government document — “Our Country Our Future” — and his 1990 establishment of a national greenhouse office as evidence for Labor’s pre-eminence.
But behind the grandstanding and backslapping lies an uneasy truth – in stark contrast to the ill-fated and weak-kneed CPRS, this time around the carbon package was crafted not by Labor but by its Green-tinged partners on Christine Milne’s Multi Party Climate Change Committee.
Among senior Greens MPs such as Milne, the progenitor of today’s carbon tax is neither Albanese nor Emerson but the voters of Melbourne, who picked Adam Bandt over Cath Bowtell and with the help of the crossbenchers forced the government’s hand.
Labor is officially loath to emphasise the role of their inner-city eco cousins, for fear of pouring fuel on loony right allegations about who exactly is running the government.
Now, Greens insiders are keen to depart from that narrative. They say it was the Greens that proposed much of the detail during never-ending sessions between Milne and Greg Combet inside the MPCCC. Today’s landmark is a sweet day indeed after the Greens were frozen out and refused to vote for the previous scheme.
Where unchangeable targets were locked in for 15 years, now, five-year rolling emissions reduction targets will be overseen by the independent climate change authority pursuing emissions reductions of 80% below 2000 levels by 2050. Energy efficiency grants and biodiversity funds governed by an independent board are both Greens ideas. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency take care of renewable energy — both brainwaves presented to the MPCCC and flicked to Combet’s department for amendments.
One senior Greens source was candid this morning: “Pretty much all the innovations in the package are Greens ideas, the fundamental one being targets recommended by the Climate Change Authority and the big renewables funds with independent boards determining how the money should be spent. That’s a really radical difference.”
They said impressive tweaks such as an expanded Productivity Commission role in immediately reviewing compensation to emissions intensive trade-exposed industries was also a key victory. And the inherently conservative Australian Energy Market Operator will include scenario planning for 100% renewable energy.
Crikey understands that a gang of four key advisers — Milne policy adviser Oliver Woldring, Bandt spinner Damien Lawson, powerful Bob Brown chief-of-staff Ben Oquist and Milne media adviser Tim Hollo — were at the centre of the negotiations.
Between them, they were up against Combet’s staff, gaggles of prime ministerial minders, Treasurer Wayne Swan’s office and cabals of Climate Change, Treasury and Prime Minister & Cabinet public servants.
The outcome, the fruits of which now sit in the House of Representatives, was negotiated in good faith with Combet and the final result is regarded a joint effort. But in most cases, the fresh policy momentum was coming from the four key players and their bosses in Milne and Bandt.
The approach differs markedly from the approach on the other side of the House. This morning Ken O’Dowd was denying humans caused climate change and George Christensen produced a torrent of abuse instead of debate, bizarrely quoting lyrics from Simple Simon as a reason not to act.
Na Labor had nothing to do with this. It was all the Greens’ idea. Oppose the CPRS, undermine Labor at every opportunity, oppose the mining tax advertising campaign, undermine that very nasty Keven Rudd, do everything possible to see the progressive side of politics nearly lose an election.
And then claim credit for all the extra legislation added to the core tax bills that form this round of carbon reform that Labor had to put in to get the Greens to agree to supporting a watered down version of the original ETS bills and enable Brown and Milne to save face for having stuffed up carbon reform in the first place.
Seriously Andrew, do you just make this stuff up so you can sound hip in the cafes of inner city Melbourne? Or are you so whacked out on the Green Kool Aid that you actually believe that this is a great day for eco politics and not the beginning of the end for progressive politics.
If Abbott is still leader of the Liberal Party at the next election and wins, he will have no choice but to chuck the whole carbon tax system out – no matter what the financial cost – as the political cost to not do so will be the complete shredding of his political reputation – that will see him at the popularity lows of Gillard within six months. And a one term wonder.
Now the Green Team is now hard at work trying to sucker Labor into going with a conscious vote for Gay Marriage as they know it will go down and then they can blame Labor and peel yet more votes off the Labor Left.
The great joy of reading Crikey in years past was that it was a journal of centrist thinking. Now it’s become a weird hybrid of the whacky green left meets hard core neo liberalism with a contemptuous – if not sociopathic – distain for pragmatic politics.
Hey Andy, where’s Bernard Keane, has management finally sacked him?
Is there a place where we can see a small profile on the authors? Like the Punch/Drum etc…
I can’t find them?
Great to read all of this, but the background of the authors is vital.
Hence the contexual understanding that comes from reading the bio of someone like Bob Ellis (the drum)
Oh Really so one Senior Greens source was candid this morning: “It was all our idea….”. No offense Mr Crook if it was a senior source from any other political party blowing their own trumpet, I think the response would be a bit more cynical wouldn’t it?
One has to assume that ALP caucus has to be, if not happy, at least not sad about this legislation….
Andrew has a down on the Labor government, check back on his articles to see how the negative is frequently emphasised.
Mind you the headline writer here, whoever s/he is, has to take some of the responsibility for that.
This article is just another example of that.
Mind you, as a Greens supporter, I’m happy to accept part of his theme above, namely that a large chunk of the credit for this bill has to go to the Greens.
But credit due to where it is due, its been a shared credit and to portion it into measurable blocks is inappropriate.
Both parties deserve our thanks.
This government, led by the Labor Party and supported by the Greens , and a few others lets not forget, has finally achieved badly needed legislation that begins to attempt to solve the problem of carbon pollution.
At last!