While Australia is already an international laggard on climate action, the return of climate denialist and alleged sexual harasser Barnaby Joyce to the deputy prime ministership threatens to elevate us to pariah status. And the extent to which the government can be trusted in relation to any commitments it makes internationally is now under serious question.
Joyce and the claque of far-right, mainly Queensland Nationals he leads aren’t merely opponents of a 2050 net zero target — which, for all the press gallery obsession with it, is too little too late to prevent highly damaging climate change — but will push for more coal-fired power, aiming to increase Australia’s emissions, rather than abate them.
And the mechanism by which they will pursue that goal is a completely secret agreement between two men that will give a handful of MPs a veto over key policies. Australians, let alone the rest of the world, won’t be allowed to see the agreement. Without that transparency, anything the government says in relation to climate cannot be relied upon.
It means that Australia is now governed by a combination of a soft climate denialist and a hard climate denialist who both want more fossil fuel production. The former, Scott Morrison, wants to support gas production and consumption, reflecting the large donations his party receives from the likes of Woodside, Santos and Origin Energy. The latter, Joyce, regards gas as an inferior product to the real thing, coal, and wants the federal government funding coal-fired power plants and more coalmining.
The only option for other countries aghast at Australia’s bludging on their own efforts to reduce global emissions will be carbon tariffs. Those tariffs will be all the greater when we start investing in new coal-fired power.
Joyce’s elevation also illustrates just how delusional the press gallery fiction of Morrison moving slowly to a more ambitious target always was. While Morrison constantly received credit for minor variations of wording around a nebulous and inadequate target, in fact he never even secured agreement for such a shift. The great Morrison march to 2050 turns out to have been a non-existent commitment to not move to a non-target.
And the dismay that Joyce’s return has provoked among agriculture groups isn’t surprising. The National Farmers’ Federation backed a net zero 2050 target, including agriculture, nearly a year ago. Meat and Livestock Australia is pursuing net zero by 2030 in a sector that is one of our biggest sources of emissions. The dairy sector, also a major contributor, long ago committed to 30% reduction by 2030, which is more ambitious than the Morrison government’s Paris commitment. The federal Nationals are fundamentally at odds with mainstream agricultural interests.
This should be of significant concern to a party that claims to represent agriculture. But the Queensland LNP is a party of fossil fuel companies, not agriculture. A look at political donations points towards another reason why, in NSW, the coal-loving Nationals are on board with a 2050 net zero target and a massive investment in renewables, but the Queensland Nationals are trying to drive more fossil fuels. The NSW Nationals receive barely any donations from fossil fuel interests, with money from Ampol and Santos dwarfed by donations from the hospitality sector, agricultural interests and Manildra, among others.
The LNP, however, has earned more than $700,000 over the past decade from fossil fuel companies, even before counting the hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed by Clive Palmer and his companies. The federal Nationals have also enjoyed hundreds of thousands in donations from Woodside, Santos and other fossil fuel companies.
The obsession of Joyce and his coterie of supporters with fossil fuels will have an impact beyond merely being out of touch with the sector they once purported to represent. Australian agricultural exporters understand that not only does Australia’s climate inaction deprive them of potential opportunities in areas like carbon farming, it places their exports under serious threat of carbon tariffs. That’s where a Morrison-Joyce government, and their secret deal, are taking our industries.
What a thriving democracy we have in Australia!! A Deputy Prime Minister with unresolved allegations of sexual harassment and a Technology Minister with historical allegations of rape and other Ministers with so many allegations of rorting and maladministration that one doesn’t know where to begin
A Federal ICAC would sort them out, but of course they will never institute one because they might lose too many members of our current Government.
The LNP ICAC would be somewhat akin to The Lying Rodent© Senator George Brandis and his Code of Ministerial Conduct.
For the LNPcampaigned on a policy of “clean government” supposedlyas a contrast to the previous government. A “Code of Ministerial Conduct” was introduced in fulfilment of this pledge.
What was required under the code was that ministershad to divest shares in portfolios that they oversaw and to be truthful in parliament.
The code eventually led to seven cabinet ministers resigning following breach of the code.
From then on it was forgotten about , and now…
Given the state of the Lying Nasty Party’s behaviour in and out of Parliament, Smirko and most of the Muppets would be out on their ear
As Mark Kenny wrote in The Canberra Times today “That Joyce is the answer proves the Nationals want to have their cake and eat it too. They want a distinct identity but the same prizes of office: the ministerial coin, the chauffeur-driven cars, the big staff and the status. If you want to know what the Nationals really stand for, it’s all here: hollow gestures, overweening personal ambition, and the weaponisation of identity”
Mark!enny tells it as I thought. Joyce is all about himself and the lining of his own pocket. He has gone back to double his salary, has the attention seeking satisfied now as the centre, and can keep up the pressure for his number one sponsor Gina. He is absolute dregs in terms of human development, moral, intellect, integrity and if people continue to vote for this kind of trash our country will decline even more so What a mess of a Government we have.
What a mess of Governments – plural – we have indeed.
Woodside – Bernard Collaery; Ashton Calvert, John Howard, Alexander Downer
“The LNP, however, has earned more than $700,000 over the past decade from fossil fuel companies, even before counting the hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed by Clive Palmer and his companies.” You would think it would have to be a lot more. The combined yearly salaries of LNP federal members would be much more than double that amount.
I’m always amazed at how cheap Australia politicians are. And how honest, as in the sense of when they are bought they stay bought. Politicians happy to cast aside the national interest to gift national wealth and toil to big corporates, who only have to pay what to them is loose change. At least in Latin America politicians have some self respect and millions in off-shore accounts.
The fossil fuel magnates must really look on Australian politicians as a bunch of cheap. but good value, useful idiots.
Australian politicians will have to get the military & police more on side to up their stash away trash the country earning capacity..
With no value to the people they are paid to represent, perhaps we should demand they pay back what they have cost the taxpayers.
For a long time I thought that the Nats had no role other than to put up their hands when told. But it’s starting to look like they have a more important role – to blow up the Coal-ition. Speed the day.