Antinuclear

Larissa Waters explains Australia’s revolving door of polluters and politicians

Larissa Waters: Ban donations from mining companies and stop ministers working for them,  Larissa Waters, Guardian, 1 Mar 16  The fossil fuel industry’s influence on politics is disproportionate to the contribution the sector makes to employment, writes Senator Larissa Waters In Australian politics, there is a revolving door that swings round and round, fuelled by money and self-interest.

Into it go former politicians and their staffers and out pop even more highly paid mining company executives and fossil fuel lobbyists.

The list of former politicians and staffers who’ve scored cushy positions in the fossil fuel sector is depressingly long – I’ve listed just some of them that I’m aware of below.

The revolving door in part explains why there has never been a coal mine or gas project refused under our federal laws.

The massive political donations, made by this desperate industry trying to cling on through taxpayer subsidies, make up another reason for the tick-and-flick approach.

A very generous $3.7m was tipped into the pockets of the federal Liberal, National and Labor parties in the last three years – and much more when you include donations made at branch and state levels.

Such large amounts of money buys influence, and buys favourable policy settings for this dying industry. For every dollar of their $3.7m contribution to the election warchests of the big parties, they get more than $2,000 back from the taxpayer purse………..

The influence of these pervasive fossil fuel donations on our political system has left the job-rich clean energy industry to deal with the investment uncertainty created by a government ruled by climate dinosaurs.

And despite the change of prime minister and the talk of agility and innovation, the revenue-positive Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which supports cutting-edge, genuinely innovative technology, are both on the Turnbull government’s chopping block.

Now is the time to be increasing public investment in job-rich clean energy to take advantage of the global transition that is already happening, while Australia is missing out.

The revolving door between politicians and the mining lobby needs to be slammed shut and political donations from fossil fuel companies must come to an end.

The Greens have legislation before the Senate to ban donations from fossil fuel companies,………http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/01/larissa-waters-ban-donations-from-mining-companies-and-stop-ministers-working-for-them

March 4, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics