The climate policy has become an article of faith within Labor, and among many supporters. It’s also a policy that in the election split voters Labor needed, attracting some but driving away others.
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has had his proposal to bring Labor’s climate change target into line with the government’s immediately torpedoed by the party’s climate spokesman Mark Butler.
Climate deniers have joyously laboured to create a world potentially uninhabitable for our children. Our activism has failed, and rebellion may be the only answer.
One Nation’s two senators have saved Energy Minister Angus Taylor from an inquiry into his intervention over endangered grasslands, with a Labor motion defeated 33-32 in the Senate.
Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University and Salim Mazouz, Australian National University
The federal government claims that Australia’s rising emissions are offset by savings around the globe when Australian gas exports replace other fossil fuels. But the numbers don’t stack up like that.
Australia’s new emissions data for the December 2018 quarter show a rise on the previous quarter, although the raw figures actually dropped. Here’s what that all means.
Twelve power projects are in the running for federal government dollars: six pumped hydro, five gas and one coal. It’s clear which one shouldn’t be on the list, for economic and environmental reasons.
The federal government has floated the idea of underwriting new coal-fired electricity generation in a bid to keep power prices low. But doing so would be a defiance of economic and environmental reality.
The federal government’s the stubborn commitment to coal is pulling the government’s economic policy towards the sort of state socialism it is supposed to abhor.
The Turnbull government’s cities policy is the latest incarnation of ‘the-Commonwealth-knows-best’ approach, with little regard for whether urban issues are best resolved at the metropolitan level.
The discussion paper makes all the right noises, but the proof of the policy will be in the detail of partnership arrangements and implementation structures, and in how new money is used.
In his ministerial reshuffle earlier this year, Malcolm Turnbull made Angus Taylor, an up-and-coming Liberal MP, the assistant minister for cities and digital transformation.
The new cities minister apparently shares the Property Council and KPMG’s enthusiasm for the UK ‘City Deals’ model, but he should look more closely at this ‘tried and tested’ model before adopting it.
Fellow - Melbourne Law School; Senior Researcher - Climate Council; Associate - Australian-German Climate and Energy College, The University of Melbourne