Keep the carbon tax – urges Labor’s national secretary, George Wright
Labor should stick with carbon pricing, national secretary tells party colleagues theguardian.com, Tuesday 29 October 2013 Katharine Murphy deputy political editor ‘We are on the right side of history on this argument,’ says George Wright in frank election postmortem at press club Labor’s national secretary, George Wright, has urged his parliamentary colleagues to persist with carbon pricing, declaring that the policy positions the party on the right side of history, climate science and economics…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/29/stick-with-carbon-pricing-labor
Labor supports dumping the carbon tax, and opposing Abbott’s “Direct Action” policy
ALP supports dumping tax not direct action HERALD SUN AAP OCTOBER 29, 2013 SHADOW assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh says Labor will support scrapping the carbon tax but insists it needs to be replaced with an emissions trading scheme. “We said we would scrap the carbon tax, the fixed price period, and move straight to a floating emissions trading scheme,” Dr Leigh told Sky News on Tuesday.
“That’s something that we will be happy to vote for on the floor of parliament.” This is consistent with the policy Kevin Rudd took to last month’s election, he said.
But he clarified there would still have to be discussions in shadow cabinet and caucus about the party’s final position on the government legislation…….
Dr Leigh said the lesson Labor had learned was from 2010.
“We were seen to walk away from carbon pricing,” he said. “I think it would be a mistake for us to do that again.” He says he doesn’t believe the coalition’s direct action policy will work to halt climate change.
Reported plans to attach direct action to the budget bills was “a classic Tea Party trick” used in the US Congress, to force Labor to vote for the “whacky” plan or make the whole budget fall. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/alp-supports-dumping-tax-not-direct-action/story-fni0xqi4-1226748787512
Labor likely to support axing of carbon tax
Labor’s carbon backflip October 29, 2013 The Age Tom Allard, Mark Kenny Labor is expected to support axing the carbon tax, with senior figures – including leader Bill Shorten – now convinced that its case for action on climate change is more easily sold if the politically ”toxic” tax is abolished……..
Problem with Abbott’s ‘Direct Action’ on carbon emissions – it doesn’t work
Decades of evidence against ‘direct action’ The Age, October 29, 2013 Editorial For all the sound and fury of Australia’s debate on climate change, there is a bipartisan target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Tony Abbott and his colleagues say they accept the climate science, but plan to scrap their Labor predecessors’ policy of carbon pricing. The Abbott government will use a $2.88 billion fund of public money over four years to pay for ”direct action” by business, industry and landholders. The problem with this policy is that it ignores real-world experience of achieving the most cost-effective emission cuts. Economists are well aware of the evidence of successful cap-and-trade schemes and, as The Age has reported, they overwhelmingly favour the carbon pricing policy model.
Of the 35 leading economists surveyed, 30 endorsed carbon pricing and only two favoured direct action. (One regarded a ”no action” policy as right for Australia and the other doubted humans were causing climate change.) Mr Abbott has defied economists’ opinion before and in 2011 ignored a Productivity Commission report that strongly endorsed carbon pricing and trading. He has also conceded the direct action fund may not be enough to cut emissions to 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, but insists the budget is fixed……….: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/decades-of-evidence-against-direct-action-20131028-2wbxt.html#ixzz2j8vd8k5z
Australia’s Prime Minister Abbott says climate-bushfire link is ‘complete hogwash’
Climate and fires link ‘hogwash’: PM HERALD SUN AAP OCTOBER 25, 2013 PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has described attempts to link the NSW bushfires with climate change as “complete hogwash”, as Australian scientists warn there is a clear connection between global warming and the probability of extreme fire days……
Mr Abbott ramped up the rhetoric on Friday, dismissing suggestions that climate change was behind the bushfire crisis.
“That is complete hogwash,” he told News Limited.
“I suppose, you might say, that they are desperate to find anything that they think might pass as ammunition for their cause.”
He said it was “bizarre” people were drawing parallels between the two, given there had been worse fires in Australian history, stretching back to the earliest days of European settlement. Mr Abbott said the longer the period of time, the greater the likelihood of extreme weather events, and broken records didn’t prove anything about climate change.
The prime minister earlier this week accused UN climate chief Christiana Figueres of “talking through her hat” by suggesting the fires were the result of global warming….
Greens leader Christine Milne said Mr Abbott was continuing to make a laughing stock of Australia on the world stage by ignoring the climate science. “It would be laughable if it were not so serious,” she said in a statement. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said he believed climate change was fundamentally linked to human activity, but didn’t want to speculate on the fires while people’s homes were still on the line. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/climate-and-fires-link-hogwash-pm/story-fni0xqi4-1226746632119
VIDEO: Prime Minister Abbott sitting on a barbed wire fence, about climate change
PM a climate fence sitter? (11:06) http://media.theage.com.au/news/national-times/pm-a-climate-fence-sitter-4855111.html
Climate Institute chief John Connor sees Prime Minister Abbott as straddling a global warming ‘barbed wire fence’, after the PM dismissed claims of a link between bushfires and climate change.
AUDIO: Australia’s Prime Minister and Environment Minister talking through their hats on climate change?
Hunt disputes fire link to climate change http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/10/24/hunt-disputes-fire-link-climate-change
The federal government is continuing to play down claims of links between bushfires in Australia and climate change. By Santilla Chingaipe World News Australia Radio The federal government is continuing to play down claims of links between bushfires in Australia and climate change.
It comes amid international claims of such a link. But questions are also being asked whether the debate should be held amid the current New South Wales bushfire crisis.
Earlier this week, the United Nations climate chief, Christiana Figueres said it was clear bushfires were absolutely linked to climate change.
She told CNN, after watching footage of the New South Wales fires, it showed the need for action to combat climate change.
“The WMO, the World Meteorological Organisation, has not established the direct link between this wildfire and climate change yet. But what is absolutely clear is the science is telling us that there are increasing heat waves in Asia, Europe, and in Australia – that these will continue, that they will continue in their intensity, and in their frequency. So what we have just seen on the screen is an example of what we may be looking at unless we take actually vigorous action.”
Speaking to Melbourne’s 3AW, Prime Minister Tony Abbott accused Ms Figueres of talking through her hat.
Greg Hunt and what Wikipedia actually does say about climate change and bushfires
Greg Hunt uses Wikipedia research to dismiss links between climate change and bushfires October 23, 2013 Esther Han, Judith IrelandEnvironment Minister Greg Hunt has hosed down suggestions of a link between climate change and increased bushfire intensity, saying he had ”looked up what Wikipedia” said and it was clear that bushfires in Australia were frequent events that had occurred during hotter months since before European settlement.
Wildfires become more pervasive and dangerous
His comments come as scientists, environment groups and politicians have raised concerns, in the wake of massive bushfires in New South Wales, that the increasing extreme weather events are linked to climate change…..
The head of the UN’s climate change negotiations, Christiana Figueres, and former US vice-president and climate change activist Al Gore have this week both weighed into the debate, criticising the Abbott government over its moves to scrap the carbon price. They also said the evidence was clear that extreme weather would be more frequent as the planet warmed.
She noted that the World Meteorological Organisation had not yet established a direct link between the NSW fires and climate change. Mr Hunt and Ms Figueres spoke by telephone overnight after Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday rejected Ms Figueres’ assessment that a clear link existed between bushfires and climate change, saying she was ”talking through her hat”.
On Monday, Ms Figueres had told CNN that the Coalition government would pay a high political and financial price for its decision to scrap carbon pricing. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greg-hunt-uses-wikipedia-research-to-dismiss-links-between-climate-change-and-bushfires-20131023-2w1w5.html#ixzz2ilagdbdT
AND WHAT WIKIPEDIA ACTUALLY DOES SAY
Climate change Australia’s climate has been trending toward more bushfire weather over the last 30 years.[18] The Climate Commission found that “The intensity and seasonality of large bushfires in south-east Australia appears to be changing, with climate change a possible contributing factor.”[19]
A 2006 report by the Bushfire CRC identified South Eastern Australia as one of the 3 most fire-prone areas in the world,[20] and concluded that an increase in fire-weather risk is likely at most sites over the next several decades, including the average number of days when the Forest Fire Danger Index rating is very high or extreme. It also found that the combined frequencies of days with very high and extreme FFDI ratings are likely to increase 4-25% by 2020 and 15-70% by 2050, and that the increase in fire-weather risk is generally largest inland.[21]
The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report due to be released in 2014 warns that Australia’s very high and extreme fire danger days will increase by up to 30% by 2020, and up to 100% by 2050.[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushfires_in_Australia
Tony Abbott rubbishes top United Nations secretary on Climate Change
Tony Abbott accuses UN official of ‘talking through her hat’ on climate change (VIDEO) ABC News By chief political editor Emma Griffiths 23 Oct 2013, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed a UN assessment that the New South Wales fires are linked to climate change, accusing a senior UN official of “talking through her hat”.
Earlier this week, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,Christiana Figueres, said the fires proved the world is “already paying the price of carbon”.
She also criticised the Abbott Government’s direct action plan to tackle climate change as being potentially “much more expensive” than the carbon pricing scheme that it is moving to dump……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-23/tony-abbott-fires-climate-change-rfs-un/5039932
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has an outstanding record of contribution to protection of the environment, and in particular, climate action.
She is one of the world’s most highly respected negotiators, having represented Costa Rica and the Americas before taking up her global role. I met her at the UNFCCC talks in Durban in 2011, and was impressed not only by her obvious knowledge and professionalism, but by the warmth she brought in her engagement with NGOs and government representatives alike.
For Tony Abbott to not even know who she is in the global climate change negotiation context, and to dismiss her role and expertise in such a cavalier manner, shames Australia and does not auger well for Australia’s engagement in the lead-up to the 2015 global treaty discussions.
Labor’s right wing pushes the nuclear power barrow: we’d better watch Shorten
Labor MPs urge rethink on nuclear power Financial Review, JAMES MASSOLA Political correspondent, 22 Oct 13
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has quashed a call by Labor MPs for the party to reopen debate about its support for nuclear power, just a day after the shadow ministry agreed to a post-election policy review.
Resources spokesman Gary Gray and Right faction senators Mark Bishop and Alex Gallacher called for the party’s approach to nuclear power and uranium exports to be discussed in a move that could provoke a damaging split with the party’s Left faction. Mr Gray said there was “absolutely no solution to global base load power generation that does not feature a strong role for nuclear power”……
Senator Gallacher said as a developed economy, Australia had a responsibility to examine how to implement “as clean an energy system as possible”.
“The nuclear option is exactly that, politically, there are so many emotional positions but there should be a scientific debate. …..
a spokeswoman for Mr Shorten said Labor had no plans to shift its position and “the prohibitive cost alone of creating a nuclear industry in this country makes it untenable”.
The ALP’s 2011 policy platform expressly forbids “the establishment of nuclear power plants and all other stages of the nuclear fuel cycle in Australia”.
The opposition has will review all of its policies, except the disability insurance scheme and the better schools plan, but it reaffirmed its support for putting a price on carbon emissions. Australian Conservation Foundation anti-nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney said nuclear power was “high cost and high risk with its global market share falling”. http://www.afr.com/p/national/labor_mps_urge_rethink_on_nuclear_QO9FaVus9ZpZhJJjSVfJ8I
Labor must keep Bill Shorten firm on carbon pricing
Bill Shorten puts majority of Labor policies up for review SID MAHER AND JOE KELLY THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 22, 2013
BILL Shorten has put Labor’s carbon pricing policy up for review in a move that gives him maximum flexibility to manoeuvre ahead of the introduction of Tony Abbott’s carbon tax repeal bills next month.
The Opposition Leader called the review of most Labor policies as the government revealed it might not have to rely on the Senate to implement the centrepiece of its direct action plan: the $1.5 billion emissions reduction fund.
Mr Shorten, at the first meeting of shadow cabinet yesterday, put every Labor policy except the Better Schools and disability insurance up for review.
This includes carbon pricing. The frontbench had an “initial discussion” regarding the government’s climate change policy and “reaffirmed” Labor’s commitment to reducing carbon pollution.
The shadow cabinet has scheduled further meetings in the weeks before parliament sits.
Last week, Mr Shorten said he remained opposed to allowing the Prime Minister to abolish the carbon price, but declined to say whether Labor would campaign to ……: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/bill-shorten-puts-majority-of-labor-policies-up-for-review/story-e6frg6xf-1226744103753#sthash.KrDx232s.dpuf
Adam Bandt on Tony Abbott as a climate change criminal
Adam responds to the release of laws to repeal the Clean Energy Act Greens Deputy says Government is failing to protect Australians from climate change Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 18/10/2013 Reporter: Steve Cannane In controversial twitter comments, Greens Deputy Adam Bandt has accused the Government of failing to protect Australians from the effects of climate change, saying that unless dangerous global warming is controlled Australians will experience regular, terrifying bushfires.
Transcript
STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER:: The federal government has criticised the Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt for politicising human tragedy after he linked the fires to climate change.
Adam Bandt isn’t backing down from his comments on Twitter that coalition policies will lead to more bushfires.
Mr Bandt maintains Tony Abbott is failing to protect Australians from the effects of climate change.
ADAM BANDT, GREENS MP: This is what global warming in Australia looks like. And unless we get dangerous global warming under control we may be experiencing these kind of awful terrifying fires on a much more regular basis…..
CHRISTINE MILNE, GREENS LEADER: You can never say a specific fire at a specific time is a global event.
STEVE CANNANE: The opposition leader Bill Shorten says the focus should be on the many families affected by the fires. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3872584.htm
As New South Wales bushfires rage, govt cuts NSW climate science group
O’Farrell cut climate change watchers, SMH, Peter Hannam, 21 Oct 13 Deep cuts to staff and funding by the NSW government have largely dismantled the state’s ability to investigate and prepare for the effects of climate change such as more frequent extreme fire weather, a former senior scientist with the government said.
Peter Smith, who led the state’s climate change science group until March, said his team of 10 had been slashed to just three whose work remained climate-focused. A similar cut had been made to a separate team of 10 working on climate adaptation, he said.
Dr Smith, who now works as an adviser on United Nations projects, was a contributor to peer-reviewed research reports that found Australia was already facing an increase in bushfire dangers. The shift was particularly clear in spring, with national mean temperatures rising 0.9 degrees since 1960.
”We know the [climate] science is unequivocal,” Environment Minister Robyn Parker told a Nature Conservation Council meeting on Saturday. ”It is for governments to respond. What we are doing is investing in climate change science, and so minimising the impacts of climate change on communities. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/ofarrell-cut-climate-change-watchers-20131020-2vuyr.html#ixzz2iNnGz1mI
Not good taste to talk about climate change during bushfire period
The Abbott government fiddles while NSW burns,Independent Australia , 19 Oct 13 FOR THE ABBOTT GOVERNMENT, it has emerged that talking about climate change during a “natural” disaster is taboo. Of course, how “natural” the NSW fires actually are is the issue here, as we witness over 100 separate fires across NSW.
These fires are the likes of which have never been seen in the month of October anywhere in Australia, let alone this close to population centres.
…….Notably, Bandt has not attributed just this one period of fires to global warming, and, as climate scientists will tell us, to ask of such a direct link is to ask the wrong question. But we can suggest that the dice is loaded toward such events occurring more frequently and in more intense forms.
Nevertheless, Bandt has been subjected to a barrage of censuring voices: on Twitter, on talkback radio, from LNP politicians and from unsigned opinion pieces on news.com.au…….http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-abbott-government-fiddles-while-nsw-burns/
Clean Energy Finance Corp is making a profit
Green investment bank profitable as Abbott axe looms, CEO Yates says, SMH, October 19, 2013
- Clean Energy Finance Corp., Australia’s green development bank earmarked for closing by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is making a profit and prodding commercial banks to lend, according to its chief executive officer.
“We’re operating profitably already, with our contracted investments expected to earn an average return of around 7 percent,” which is above the bank’s capital cost of about 3 percent, Oliver Yates, CEO of the bank founded less than four months ago by the previous government, told delegates at a conference in London. He declined to comment on Abbott’s plan to close CEFC, citing public-service rules……
- The development bank has built a loan portfolio of around $536 million and helped projects get debt and equity of about $2.2 billion, including from other institutions, Yates said at the Climate Markets & Investment Association event earlier this week. The deals will cut emissions by about 3.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, he said. They include wind farms and a tomato farm that uses solar energy to desalinate seawater.
‘Meaningful impact’
“We’ve been able to make a meaningful impact offering finance on a commercial basis,” Yates said. “Though we have the capacity to provide concessional loans, for the great majority of cases that hasn’t proved necessary. Our job is not to make it easy for the banks, but to stretch them and encourage them to join into transactions with us.”
The bank has demonstrated it can generate carbon reductions at a net benefit to the taxpayer of $2.40 a ton of carbon dioxide, he said. http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/green-investment-bank-profitable-as-abbott-axe-looms-ceo-yates-says-20131019-2vt12.html#ixzz2iNfY7eQ1
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 