In an ever-hotter world, where the world’s scientists have demonstrated the urgent need to curb carbon emissions yet again if we’re to prevent the colossal economic, natural and human costs associated with climate change, Australia’s political system has comprehensively failed.
We currently have no climate policy beyond the next 18 months, and the government actually boasts about that. Our latest energy minister — who has disappeared without trace since his first, embarrassing public outing — is a campaigner against renewable energy. Australia’s emissions are rising, and the government seeks to hide that by sneaking out the data when they hope no one is looking. Australian bureaucrats tried to sabotage the latest IPCC report by demanding the removal of references to the need to phase out coal. The Prime Minister routinely lies that Australia will easily meets its low-ambition Paris Agreement targets. Australia is the only country in the world to establish an effective, low-cost and highly efficient emissions abatement scheme and then dump it.
It’s important, of course, that we’ve had a succession of climate denialists in key positions of power — Tony Abbott as prime minister, Barnaby Joyce as deputy prime minister, the Nationals as Coalition partners. It’s important that climate policy has been a key tool used by enemies of Malcolm Turnbull within the Liberal Party against him. It’s also important that News Corp, currently the dominant media company in Australia, promotes climate denialism through all of its newspapers and pay TV outlets.
But as always, the focus on personalities and individuals can distract. The political system is also broken, and incapable of responding to the need to reduce emissions.
Consider the grip that fossil fuel interests have within politics, using the standard indicators: donations, lobbyists and jobs for ex-politicians. From 2010-17, according to Australian Electoral Commission data, coal mining companies and fossil fuel-based energy companies donated $5.9 million in declared contributions to the major political parties — $3.8 million to the Coalition and $2.1 million to Labor. The biggest donor, Woodside, routinely gives over $100,000 each year to both sides. Coal mining is also a major source of donations to Labor, with the CFMMEU now Labor’s largest union donor after the SDA. Mining provided the largest single source of donations to the major parties in the period 2015-17, according to the Grattan Institute.
And while major polluters have their own in-house lobbyists, they also employ some of the biggest lobbying firms in the country. Liberal powerbroker Micheal Photios’ PremierState+PremierNational, Liberal lobbying group Barton Deakin, Newgate Communications and GovStrat, which includes former Queensland premier Rob Borbidge, all represent coal miners. Former senior Labor staffer Cameron Milner lobbied for Adani.
The Grattan Institute examined data from Queensland and found mining and energy was the second-biggest source of donations after property developers, had the most lobbying contacts with government of any industry (more than one quarter of the total) and 10% of all meetings with senior ministers. The mining industry’s ability to influence policy was cited by Transparency International as a reason why Australia fell in its transparency ranking the 2017.
And ex-politicians are common among the ranks of polluters. Former deputy PM Mark Vaile chairs Whitehaven. Ian Macfarlane heads the Queensland Resources Council, after Abbott called for the mining industry to give him a job. Former Queensland Labor treasurer Keith De Lacy has chaired coal mining companies and campaigned against renewables. Former senior Labor figure Martin Ferguson now works for mining industry peak bodies. His replacement as resources minister, Gary Gray, had previously worked for Woodside, which employs former DFAT staff and has employed former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer.
Those who benefit from preventing climate action are thus deeply enmeshed in our entire way of governing, and can ensure the system works in their interests, not those of the community, and certainly not those of future generations.
Thus, while the refusal of individual politicians to take climate change seriously may reflect a personal ideology of denialism, that’s no more important than the fact that our entire system of government provides strong incentives at the party, bureaucratic and personal level to hold such beliefs.
That is, the system itself is as much a problem as the old white men who reject climate science. If it was in their personal and partisan interests to accept it and act upon it, they would do so readily.
Still wondering why Morrison is PM and why we aren’t having an urgent election.
He can do a lot of damage if he hangs on until May.
LOL. This government isn’t “fit to purpose”…….period. A useless bunch of time servers more interested in securing their current & future entitlements, as well as their post politics job prospects, than they are about governing the nation.
Australian democratic process has been corroded by money and corporate interests. There is no impetus to raise the condition of the people or community, we are considered a resource to be exploited and nothing but profit fuels political action.
What is the point of having a oppositional political structure when both side are ‘bribed’ so effectively by the greedy self interest of mining, banking & finance, property development and media. These are just the local based players we have foreign powers that are more than happy to buy up whatever they can including current and former politicians.
Of all the many political issues that labor could have focused on such as i) opposing the TPP allowing foreign workers EEO, multinational corporate courts to decrease national sovereignty ii) climate change iii) falling working conditions and wages …on and on and on.
The Labor partys main point of difference in the coming campaigns on giving 3 year olds funded kindy !!!
There is no choice between Libs & Labor but to vote for corporate interests whatever candidate from either party you support.
Only a vote for disruptive minor party will see any slow down in corporate power, sadly they are populist and single issue morons to a large degree.
Party’s such as the former Democrats (RIP) and perhaps Sustainability Australia may provide a shift in the balance. Some change is required NOW
How can we possibly hope to compete against these big donor patrons and their vested interests, for the attention of our elected representatives : when all we do is pay our taxes, their wages and vote for them to be “our” elected representatives?
…. “Whose Opera House is it”?
…. And there’s that good ol’ boy Ian Macfarlane – “Part-time Rolex watches expert” too?
“The political system is also broken, and incapable of responding to the need to reduce emissions.”
Evidence not given.
The political system responded under the previous government with a system that was demonstrably reducing emissions.
The Coalition is incapable of responding to the need to reduce emissions. A Coalition most of your colleagues not only backed into government but backed for re-election in the massively mistaken belief that Turnbull would turn into Prince Charming if only he won an election in his own right. Nonetheless, they can be defeated at the ballot box, within the system, at which point a Labor government will take action on emissions.
This is the kind of thing the Coalition loves- if BOTH SIDES get the blame for the Coalition’s crap actions, they suffer no penalty for doing them relative to Labor. This encourages them to do it more.
So go blame yourself and your media colleagues for once again rewarding the COALITION’s failure on emissions by trying to tar everyone else with it, and go to lunch.
Hear! Hear! Arky.
Absolutely correct, Arky…you beat me to it!
I’m sick to death of Labor being blamed, equally, for every single stuff-up of the lying nasty party.
Bernard did mention that ‘Australia’ had a very effective emissions abatement scheme, which was subsequently ‘dumped’. Pity he forgot to mention that Labor introduced this in government, and it was the other useless lot who did the dumping. There you go Bernard…fixed it!!
One of these days Bernard or some other political journo will have the ticker to take questions and debate readers. I’m looking forward to it.
What makes you think they’ll ever have the ticker to debate readers? I still haven’t been able to understand the forces that morphed Bernard Keane from a quite balanced journalist into a Newcorpse-lite version.
You mean the system that the ALP has since dumped as a policy?
Where is your evidence for that claim, Draco? A Carbon Pricing Scheme-to the best of my knowledge-remains Labor Party policy. A fact the Libturd Party hopes to exploit fear over in next year’s election.
Go read their policy documents, they are not bringing back a carbon tax. All you’ll get is an ETS.
After what happened in the “carbon tax” years, you really can’t blame the ALP for taking a cautious approach, but they fundamentally believe in taking action on emissions and firmly supporting a transition from coal fired power to renewable energy, and supporting the state policies in this area which have sprung up in the absence of federal leadership.
It’s completely ridiculous “both sides”ism from Keane to be blasting Australian politics generally. There’s only two groups at fault here: the Coalition who are denying science because it is commercially inconvenient to their donors, and the media who enabled and didn’t push back significantly on their bullshit campaign against the carbon tax.
Sorry, the ALP don’t get off that easily. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the Greens and only because they were in a minority government. No doubt you would be one of the apologists who still think Kevin Rudd’s scheme had some merit and blame The Greens for Kevin’s failure of courage and imagination.
I am, actually.
The Greens played the politics of the situation right into Tony Abbott’s hands and look where we are now.
It’s better to start small and build than to start big and crash.
I used to vote 1 for the Greens sometimes especially at state level. The Greens’ behaviour in the Rudd and Gillard years, and since then when they have mostly prioritised resources into taking left wing seats off Labour, has soured me on that.
Let’s not forget the Greens role in torpedoing Rudd era climate legislation. Will they commit to not similarly wrecking legislation by a future Labor government, which will not have a Senate majority.
The Greens did no such thing. They did their role as an Opposition Party in the Senate. They sought to amend Rudd’s legislation in 3 key areas-levels of compensation for business (Rudd’s was too high), levels of compensation for ordinary tax payers (Rudd’s was too low), & a fixed vs floating emission reduction target (Rudd’s fixed emissions target was massively inflexible). Rudd’s original ETS was actually going to be a very expensive flop, by all expert accounts.
Rather than try & negotiate with The Greens, however, Rudd instead decided to bet it all on Turnbull backing him. Oh, but then Abbort rolled Turnbull & withdrew all support. Even then Rudd arrogantly refused to even negotiate…..something he was very well known for. Do try and get your history correct. Greens deserve lambasting over their behaviour in the senate on several matters (like Gillard’s Media Reforms), but they were dead right to fight for changes to Rudd’s dud ETS.
Hmm, “a Labor government will take action on emissions.” – that is prime delusion. Have you sought treatment?