Antinuclear

Tony Abbott’s real reasons for abolishing carbon price – and for his Direct Action sham

Secondly, powerful vested interests in Australia, including the fossil fuel lobby, mining industry and carbon intensive corporations are heavy donors to Mr Abbott’s Liberal Party. 

Why Tony Abbott wants to abolish the carbon price, The Guardian,  by Alexander White Wednesday 18 September 2013 

Why is abolishing the carbon price Tony Abbott’s ‘top legislative priority’? “……. in my view it’s clear that Mr Abbott wants to abolish the carbon tax primarily for two reasons.

Firstly, he is either not convinced of the urgency of the threat of climate change to Australia’s economy or society, or doesn’t believe in climate change at all. For example, one of Tony Abbott’s business advisors, former ABC chairman Maurice Newman, in an article in The Australian equated concern over climate change to a “global warming religion” and climate scientists as a “global warming priesthood”.

Mr Abbott himself famously said in an interview that climate change is “crap”, and his ministry and senior member of his political party are avowed climate change science deniers. This position was made clear in 2009 by Malcolm Turnbull after being dumped as leader:

“the fact is that Tony and the people who put him in his job do not want to do anything about climate change. They do not believe in human caused global warming. As Tony observed on one occasion ‘climate change is crap’ or if you consider his mentor, Senator Minchin, the world is not warming, it’s cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world.”

Secondly, powerful vested interests in Australia, including the fossil fuel lobby, mining industry and carbon intensive corporations are heavy donors to Mr Abbott’s Liberal Party. Major donors to the Liberal Party prior to the 2013 election, according to the Australian Electoral Commission include mining company Santos ($227,880), Clive Palmer’s Minerology ($459,900), nickel miners Minara Resources ($358,000) and Mincor Resources ($120,000), Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group ($50,000), and oil giant Chevron ($28,500).

It has been reported that Gina Rinehart, a major supporter of Barnaby Joyce (who is a member of the Queensland Liberal National Party and was elected as deputy leader of the National Party), has surrounded herself with notorious climate skeptics. In a profile of Rinehart in The Monthly, author Nick Bryant wrote:

“Like her father’s views, Rinehart’s have been reinforced through her friendships with like-minded academics and scientists, although whereas Hancock had an intellectual crush on nuclear experts like Edward Teller, Rinehart has sought out climate change sceptics like Professor Ian Plimer and Christopher Monckton. Monckton was invited to deliver the Lang Hancock Memorial Lecture in 2011. Plimer has been appointed to the boards of three of her companies, and is also a member of her pressure group, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision (ANDEV).”

Barnaby Joyce, who will be a senior minister in the Abbott government claims to be a close friend of Ms Rinehart (“Gina is a great friend of mine and I’m a good mate of Gina’s” said Barnaby), and according to the ABCshe donated $50,000 to his campaign this year………

The “direct action” sham

Mr Abbott’s “direct action” plan was a cynical ploy to appear to take action on climate change before the election. In fact it would do nothing to reduce carbon emissions. It is a sham policy, as I wrote here.

Elements of “direct action” include planting trees and creating a “green army” of volunteers to pick up rubbish. The other major aspect of the policy would be paying major polluters to reduce their emissions through a grants process.

No credible organisation, economist or scientific body supports direct action, and before the election the Liberal Party environment spokesperson Greg Hunt was unable to explain how it would reduce carbon emissions by 5 percent as it promises to do. Senior Liberal Party minister and former party leader Malcolm Turnbull explained in 2009 that the “direct action” policy was “a farce” and “a con” designed “to do nothing”.

Warming records are being broken

September is already on track to become one of the hottest on record. In Australia, this September ended the warmest twelve months since record began. In the UK, it was the hottest in seven years, while records were made in Toronto, Canada.

Australia is facing serious changes to our climate and our weather systems as a result of global warming. Mr Abbott’s decision to abolish carbon pricing, if he is successful, would be an act of gross moral negligence to the future prosperity of this country and future generations. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2013/sep/18/tony-abbott-abolish-carbon-price

September 19, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics