With the next COAG meeting in October cancelled because the government is too divided and confused to work out its policy positions, and no position in crucial areas like energy and the economy, it’s clear that the Morrison government is big on mateship, a fair go and other ockerisms, but bereft of policy.
There’s one key area, however, where the lack of policy isn’t the result of confusion, incompetence, division or needing a new treasurer or minister to get up to speed, but quite deliberate. The Morrison government will literally have no climate policy.
“The renewable energy target is going to wind down from 2020, it reaches its peak in 2020, and we won’t be replacing that with anything,” climate denialist Energy Minister Angus Taylor proudly said yesterday.
Since 2009, the Coalition has serially dumped (after initially supporting) a carbon price, then rejected a clean energy target, ruled out (after briefly ruling in) an emission intensity scheme, approved Josh Frydenberg’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG) overwhelmingly in the joint party room, then dramatically overhauled it, then dumped it altogether in the space of a few days. It also declared war on renewables under Tony Abbott, declared its love for big renewables projects like Snowy Hydro 2.0 under Turnbull, and is now praising “fair dinkum” — i.e. fossil fuel — power under the coal-toting Morrison.
Along the way, it used its “soil magic” business handout program, the Emission Reduction Fund, as a fig leaf for its lack of climate policy, but dramatically scaled that back from its original form in opposition, cut it further in government, and finally stopped funding it altogether in recent budgets.
That means that the Morrison government is more climate denialist than Tony Abbott: it doesn’t even have the fig leaf ERF, which continues to dribble out funding to business and farmer mendicants but which will soon expire. The Coalition has actually gone backwards from the heady days when Abbott declared climate science was “crap”, and no longer even bothers to pay lip service to the idea of addressing climate change.
There is talk that the ERF will be revived with an infusion of funds. But that doesn’t count as a credible policy: the cost of using the ERF to meet Australia’s Paris emissions reduction targets will be between $100 billion and $250 billion, according to the government’s friends at the Australian Industry Group. Short of discovering a quarter-trillion dollars down the back of the couch, Australia will become one of the few developed countries in the world that simply refuses to address its carbon emissions.
Angus Taylor…………what a wanker!
The charade continues but it’s no surprise because the Leader picked the two deniers in environment and energy. After all he believes the earth is 6000 years old and mankind walked with the dinosaurs. Maybe next week he’ll walk into parliament with a lump of fair dinkum dinosaur shit!
‘a lump of fair dinkum dinosaur shit’
Tut tut, a most unflattering reference to Kevin Andrews.
With 57-59% of Australians supportive of action on climate change and a managed transition to renewable energy sources, this farcical policy vacuum should be enough, on its own, to damn the LNP to oblivion at the next election. But remembering that over 50% of Australians ignorantly supported miners in respect of the Mining Resource Rent Tax (ie taxing the extraction of resources owned collectively by Australian society) who knows what will happen.
How can these fools be left to govern the country?
Angus Taylor is not a adequate MP to be a minister, he is a fool of limited ability, and basically bought his position through huge political donations to the Lib’s.
He is surely at some point expecting to recoup his investment.
We’re lucky then that the LNP won’t be around in 2020
Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. It does appear that Rupert is prepared to let us pretend we’ve changed the Government for three years before resuming business as usual but he might change his mind.
If labor are elected it surely must be a huge priority to diminish the power of Murdoch and his obedient underlings. Our media diversity in the agenda setting space is pathetic. Murdoch said,’ Malcolm’s got to go,’ and Malcolm went. Bill Shorten should not trust Murdoch even to the smallest measurement of quantum mechanics.
How to achieve this I don’t know, but for the sake of our fine country put the best brains in the labor party on it.
One of the biggest problems is that Labor is a captive of the Murdoch Empire. Murdoch says as much.
If they are captive to Murdoch why are they continually being savaged in the Newscorp papers? I cancelled my subscription in 2012 but the Australian had not been remotely balanced since around 2005.
Favourite would be to remove all government Appointments advertising from the Oz.
Yesssss!