Tag: Corporate Lobbying

Aug 17 2012

Gillard’s policy slammed by… younger Gillard

Charles Berger from the Australian Conservation Foundation has unearthed a very interesting episode in our Prime Minister’s past. In 1999, then-backbencher Julia Gillard criticized the Howard government for trying to delegate to the state government its decision-making power on a proposed toxic waste dump in her electorate: I rise to speak to this legislation because …

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Jul 26 2012

Environmental deregulation agenda continues

As NASA reports record ice melt in Greenland, Australian federal and state governments remain convinced we have too much environmental regulation. They reaffirmed this belief at yesterday’s meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). The communiqué gives very little detail, but it appears the environmental deregulation agenda outlined at April’s meeting is rolling onward …

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Jul 17 2012

The sabotaging of climate policy

On this blog I have covered the many flaws in government policies on climate change (I’ve focused on Australia, but similar criticisms could be made of climate policies around the world). There are seemingly endless complexities which might be bewildering to casual observers, but one of the most important things to understand is: the flaws …

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Jun 27 2012

Climate Change Authority board members conflicted

At least two members of the recently announced board of the Climate Change Authority have conflicts of interest. The new independent Climate Change Authority will regularly review Australia’s climate policies. Its first job will be to review the Renewable Energy Target later this year. The Authority’s most important task will be, in February 2014, to …

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Jun 24 2012

Why are international negotiations failing?

There is not much to say about the recent Rio+20 conference. This time, nobody is even pretending anything of significance has been achieved. Two decades after the original conference that was supposed to save the world, countries reaffirmed the commitments they made in 1992 and agreed to agree on some goals in the future. The …

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Apr 13 2012

Business declares war on environmental regulations

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) today met to discuss the business lobby’s demand that the Government cut “green tape”. Yesterday, Gillard chaired a Business Advisory Forum, at the end of which she announced this outcome: For the first time in 112 years of federation, business representatives have been able to come face to face …

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Apr 03 2012

Labor should ignore business lobby’s whining

Yesterday, ABC Breakfast host Fran Kelly berated Climate Change Minister Greg Combet for not accepting the ridiculous complaint by business that Australia’s carbon price is somehow “too high”. This is the fossil fuel lobby’s latest excuse, an argument they have been making for months now. Credit where it’s due: I am pleased to say Labor …

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Feb 05 2012

The conspiracy to capture the Australian media

If you’ve paid attention to the news recently then you may know Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has been buying up shares in TV channels (Network Ten) and newspapers (Fairfax Media). What you may not be aware of is a video of Christopher Monckton and other climate change deniers plotting how to “capture” the Australian …

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