Antinuclear

Warning that the suburbs of western Sydney and Melbourne are being “crucified on the altar of inaction” and regional and rural communities were “hostage to climate damage”, the former Labor minister said the party’s true believers are “dying out” and a younger generation of voters will be “more radical and less forgiving” if it fails to act.

Speaking to Labor’s Environmental Action Network on Saturday night, Mr Garrett took direct aim at former colleague Joel Fitzgibbon and “some in the CFMEU”,  who he accused of deliberately undermining the party and “not committed to the challenge” of reducing emissions.

“The natural world is under siege. The threat we face is literally existential,” Mr Garrett told the gathering of about 100 people at the Keg and Brew Hotel in Sydney’s Surry Hills.

“We are surrounded by fires, force-fed by a super hot spring. Our cities and towns are blanketed with smoke and the sun has gone out, it’s hard to breathe.”

Labor has engaged in a fierce internal debate since its shock election loss on May 18 with Mr Fitzgibbon, the agriculture and resources spokesman, arguing the ALP should offer “a political and policy settlement” on climate policy to make a 28 per cent reduction in emissions the target by 2030.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has signalled Labor’s future climate policy platform will be focused on jobs in the low-emissions energy sector.

Mr Garrett said progressive politics must realise the world was “witnessing a tectonic shift” in the climate and its faith was waning in established institutions.

“Our times do not call for ‘business as usual’ politics,” Mr Garrett said.

Labor must face down self-interest and sectional interest, whether from some in business, or some in the CFMEU, or from individual members who eschew reality and are not committed to the challenge, and indeed in the case of the shadow minister for Agriculture and Resources Joel Fitzgibbon, deliberately undermine the party whilst still holding their position.”  …….. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/peter-garrett-urges-labor-to-reconnect-with-environmental-movement-warns-true-believers-are-dying-20191206-p53hqe.htm