As Labor goes through yet another bout of self-destructive leadership undermining and internal dissent, and a shadow cabinet reshuffle is leaked to the press ahead of time, this morning’s news should be enough to show them the way.
Joe Biden’s new climate envoy, John Kerry, said this in Washington:
I think that unfortunately workers have been fed a false narrative… they have been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. No, it’s not. What’s happening to them is happening because of other market forces that are already taking place.
Meanwhile, on Radio National, Joel Fitzgibbon has welcomed the yet-to-be officially announced removal of Mark Butler from the shadow climate portfolio, describing him as “somewhat over-enthusiastic in his response to climate change policy.”
I have great respect for Mark Butler but yes I believe this to be a good thing, I believe this to be a good start, it will send the right message to our traditional base, but it won’t be enough alone. We also have to both recalibrate our policy and our messaging to send the right message to the base that whilst we are serious about tackling climate change we won’t do so at the expense of their jobs.
Hmmm… it seems Joel has either swallowed, or is knowingly feeding the electorate, that false narrative Kerry spoke about.
Joel is one of those whatever-it-takes kinda guys.
He used that old line that Australia was only a small emitter on a global scale, adding that Australia should advocate for the big emitters to do more without, it seems, doing more itself. Someone should have texted him to wait up, he might want to listen to what Biden is doing.
And if we are such small fry, why are we spending hundreds of billions on weapons of war?
When Fran Kelly asked Fitzgibbon what he meant by remessaging, he said that Labor’s climate response should be about policy not politics. He then said that parties cannot implement policies from opposition, so the policies have to be something which help you get elected.
Ummmm… Joel… that sounds a lot like putting politics first and, dare I say, your personal re-election paramount in your thinking.
That would be fair enough if you weren’t throwing away the one area where Labor can really take the lead. Oh, and showing utter disdain for the health of the planet and our responsibility as global citizens to join the international effort to save it.
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