Antinuclear

The Greens will use Labor’s failure to make an unequivocal statement on whether it will oppose the Adani coalmine to ramp up campaign efforts in the Melbourne electorate of Batman.

With the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, this week telling Queensland voters that coal had a future and that scepticism about the Adani project did not equate to scepticism about the coal industry as a whole – the Greens and activist groups are ramping up their Batman field efforts ahead of the byelection on 17 March.

Greens sources have told Guardian Australia the apparent equivocation from Labor had been added to scripts for voter contacts, both through door knocking and phone banking. Shorten’s positive line on coal has also been added to the Greens’ social media campaign in Batman.

Local environmental groups have also used various Labor statements this week to launch a call to action, recruiting activists for a door-knocking effort over the coming weekend.

In an email to supporters, the group 350 Australia says: “Bill Shorten needs to stop sitting on the fence and stand with the two-thirds of Australians who want to see Adani stopped. We know that conversations can shift politics, just as we know that the majority of Australians – including Batman voters – want to see Adani stopped.”

 Bill Shorten says there’s a ‘role for coal’ and Adani mine just ‘another project’

In a speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday, Butler warned the development of the Galilee basin was not in Australia’s national interest, because it would displace mining and jobs in existing coal regions and would not help the world meet its obligations under the Paris climate agreement.

…….With the Batman contest in progress and no definitive statement from Shorten about whether scepticism about Adani meant Labor would ultimately adopt a stance of blocking the project, Labor’s influential internal environmental lobby group on Tuesday called on the federal party to clarify its stance, arguing the Adani project was not in the national interest.The national convener of the Labor environment action network, Felicity Wade, said: “As Labor people, we understand why economically vulnerable communities object to the sense that post-materialist elites in the south want to decide their futures, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Adani mine will be bad for the global climate.”https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/21/greens-use-labors-adani-indecision-to-ramp-up-batman-campaign