Feb 18 2015
If you’re Australian and you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ll know PM Tony Abbott narrowly survived a leadership spill motion in the Liberal party room last week. Most commentators agree we haven’t heard the end of this. The apparent leading candidate is Malcolm Turnbull. It’s also possible Abbott could be challenged by Julie …
Aug 11 2014
On 17 July, Australia’s carbon tax was repealed. I was originally going to write about all the political theatre and drama associated with the repeal, but in the final analysis it didn’t really matter that much. At the end of the day, the carbon tax is dead. Tony Abbott’s Liberal government finally succeeded in killing …
Mar 28 2014
A Senate inquiry into the Australian Government’s proposed climate Direct Action Plan reported on Wednesday. The report says nothing new, and I’m fed up with the inane narrow positions which each of the three parties has manoeuvred themselves into. First, the good news. The main report, authored by Labor Senators Lin Thorp, Louise Pratt, and …
Feb 27 2014
Australia’s independent Climate Change Authority (CCA) today released the final report of its emissions targets review. It should be obvious to everyone that the Abbott Liberal government will ignore this report. They are trying to pass legislation to abolish the CCA, and are unwinding all the (already weak) policies of the former Labor government. They …
Nov 07 2013
Australian ex-Prime-Minister John Howard yesterday addressed the “Global Warming Policy Foundation”, a British climate change denialist group. He described global warming as “a substitute religion” and himself as “an agnostic”. Like all deniers he objects to the term “denier”. In reality, there is overwhelming evidence that humans are warming the planet, and if you don’t …
Aug 30 2013
“Do you really want three more years like the last six?” Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott constantly repeats. Although my answer is no, I have even less desire for three more years like the twelve which preceded the last six. Abbott likes to hark back to the last time his Liberal/National Coalition were in government, …
Aug 25 2013
Australian politics has recently seen a proliferation of new minor parties, perhaps because the hung parliament has shown people how minor parties can play an influential role. I’ve been researching each of the options, in particular their attitude to climate change. Here’s what I found out! The following is a full list of Australian minor …
Aug 14 2013
Australia’s two major political parties – the incumbent Labor government led by Kevin Rudd and Liberal-National Coalition opposition led by Tony Abbott – present themselves as having quite different policies on climate change. Labor, together with the Greens, has legislated a fixed carbon price soon to morph into an internationally-linked emissions trading scheme (ETS). The …
Precarious Climate