Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

Does God condone genocide?

By Bert Hetebry Stan Grant points out in his book The Queen is…

As Yemen enters tenth year of war, militarisation…

Oxfam Australia Media Release As Yemen enters its tenth year of war, its…

«
»
Facebook

Day to Day Politics: All talk and no direct action.

Tuesday 6 September

1 I’m not sure how long it is since Barry Jones as Science Minister in the Hawke Government first raised the issue of climate change. I recall Hawke asking what on earth he was on about.

Of course we have been talking about it ever since. Mountains of reports have been published. Scientists have proved beyond doubt the truth of it but governments around the world have been reluctant to act. You may ask “why is it so” but there is no great mystery to it.

Firstly there is a disinclination to believe the science and secondly governments place the capitalist craving for profit before the health of the planet and its citizens.

Last week the Australian Climate Change Authority advised the Government to institute two emission trading schemes and strengthen out emissions targets. After all, we do have international obligations.

We are not meeting them. Two members of the panel were so upset with the Government’s apathy that they vowed to produce a minority dissenting report.

Authority board members, scientists, Clive Hamilton and David Karoly both believe we should have a target of reducing our emissions by 40-60 per cent by 2030. This was previously recommended by the CCA, but it recently released a report which backed the Federal Government’s policy of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030. They both also advocate the closure of brown coal power stations.

The point is that we have a Prime Minister who once had a very passionate view that Climate Change was very real and something had to be done. So strong was his opinion about Direct Action that he lost his job as Opposition Leader because of it.

These days he is more passionate about keeping his job so has joined the other Coalition, head in sand, Climate Deniers in taking a low key, do nothing, approach to the problem of lowering our emissions.

The public, generally in spite of indicating in surveys that they want something done, has adopted an apathetic disposition.

So apathetic that they accept that former Minister Hunt was telling lies for years and are prepared to accept the same from Josh Frydenberg.

And so it was with Frydenberg imitating Hunt in hosing down the report. He said the Government was taking an ambitious approach in reducing emissions which conversely raises the question as to why they are still rising.

I am inclined to the view that this Government has no intention of meeting its targets. It well may be that the only thing that will engage a response is an event of catastrophic proportion.

Meanwhile the talk will go on.

An observation.

If we’re not raising new generations to be better stewards of the environment, what’s the point?”

2 Last April Christopher ‘the mouth that roared’ Pyne, and his wife went on a $30,000 ‘taxpayer funded’ trip to London and Rome. It didn’t raise an eyebrow.

Then there was another $5000 for a Christmas trip to Sydney for him and his family. No rules were broken of course.

Yesterday he was insisting that Sam Dastyari broke the rules over gifts and donations from Chinese business interests, while also refusing to say what the government would do to address growing concern over Australia’s donations system.

Later he retracted on the broken rules accusation..

3 Superannuation is shaping up as a huge test of Turnbull’s authority as leader. He needs to have his election policy on superannuation go to the Parliament with little change.

If he caves into the backbench it will confirm in the public’s mind that he is captive to the right of his party. Superannuation is the only policy with serious money savings. If he doesn’t get it through he will have to explain what plan two is. God I hate that ‘plan’ word.

4 Now that’s interesting. Did Labor’s Negative Gearing Policy save Turnbull? Research shows that the four federal seats with the highest proportion of people who own investment properties recorded an average swing of two per cent to the Coalition. In contrast, there was a 7.5 per cent swing to the Australian Labor Party in the five seats that have the lowest proportion of investment property owners.

5 My source ‘Tim’ voiced his opinion that:

“If the libs go back to Abbott they can forget about winning the next election. Although he suspects they will lose anyway. Matter of keeping loss of seats to a minimum.

Abbott will never get the vindication he truly wants – he’ll never reclaim the top job – but he’s already getting the next best thing: a front row seat to watch as the man who vanquished him falls apart”.

I think he is on the ball there. They have done nothing in three years and there are no signs of them doing anything in the next three. Although they still say they have a plan. There’s that word again.

My thought for the day

“Conservatives say that poverty is the fault of the victim but wealth comes from virtue and both are the natural order of things”.

 

26 comments

Login here Register here
  1. paulwalter

    Thoughtful of AIM to put this up..bloody insomnia!

    With climate change, the news is inconvenient, a little like being reminded about asylum seekers.
    It is inconvenient because it may postpone instant gratification,

    Back in the nineties capitalism did become aware of environmental concerns and its response has been, basically, rigged Howardism and dumbing down, cut backs to CSIRO and AQIS as well as public media, much more snooping and heavy laws and slapsuits for dissidents were the result.

    Some how Labor got dragged into this thinking also, basically because its very financial basis was threatened by industries withdrawing money if environmentalist controls were not dropped. Is Labor as bad? not quite, but the hostility within older parts of Labor toward the Greens is an uncomfortable echo of the worst of hard right politics and has been used as a club against Labor’s left faction by a right faction only marginally better as to attitude than the Tories. I gather the worst of this comes from Queensland.

    John Lord on super and other changes also, foregrounds Frydenberg and also wonders if the Tories have any intention of easing back on ecological destructiveness. With Frydenberg, he has the perfect answer to his question but I doubt if it is one he is going to like.

  2. auntyuta

    If you are a successful investment property owner, for sure you can trust the Liberals?
    Can you tell us, when the Sydney Morning Herald published Malcolm Turnbell’s words about lack of integrity?

    Climate change is going to effect future generations. The Liberals only think how their policies or non-policies work for the present.

    Interesting thought of yours, dear John, what conservatives’ view is about “the natural order of things”.

  3. Keitha Granville

    It is a lot like the unicorn ignoring the floud warning and not making it in time to be saved by Noah. Trouble is this time there is no-one to save us because there is nowhere to go

  4. stephentardrew

    Nothing this empty wind bag does surprises me any-more.

    Blatant lying and deception just like his clone Abbott except worse because Abbot believed his magical/mythical despotic narrative whereas Turnbull, as Mr Hollow Man, sold out all his principles and is now empty of any moral virtues. What a poor excuse for a human being and he is the PM.

    Australia you are nuts.

  5. Carol Taylor

    I note from the headlines at The non-Australian that they are softening us up for the Libs next move – Medicare.

    The headline reads Routine GP Tasks Blowout Medicare. Not being able to read the article due to the fact that I refuse to subscribe to anything pertaining to Murdoch, I am therefore tempted to think that this means we’re going to be visited by yet another spectre of budget’s past. Perhaps along the lines of a GP co-payment so as to ‘send a price signal’.

    Mentioned in the first sentences (which is all that they give you on their email) is ‘repeat prescriptions’ or ‘administrative consultations’. As an administrative consultation they use the example of writing sick certificates. I don’t know how GPs would stop doing that when it’s a job requirement for the patient, and one that the Howard government pushed ‘must have within 24hrs’ in spite of the fact that there may be no appointment for a week. But surely how can they judge that an appointment for a sick certificate is purely administrative, isn’t the doctor also taking the patient’s temperature, checking blood pressure, checking throat? Surely if someone presents ill and needs a certificate then the doctor would be looking at the patient AS WELL.

    As far as ‘repeat prescriptions’ – what is The Australian saying, that people shouldn’t have repeat prescriptions? Or that they don’t need to see a doctor to obtain one? The first option is of course a completely ridiculous suggestion and the 2nd option dangerous, are they saying to just hand over repeat after repeat and never bother to monitor the patient?

  6. Terry2

    Interesting article in Crikey on the erosion of our corporate tax base, here’s an extract :

    “Commercial property group Stockland had a fine year with revenue up 10% to $2.33 billion and net profit a healthy $919 million. Only 3.3% of this was paid in tax — $30 million.

    Wesfarmers also had a pretty good 2016. Revenue from Coles, Kmart, Officeworks, Target and Bunnings were all up on last year. Revenue for the group increased from $62.4 to $66 billion. Healthy dividends and executive salaries were maintained. Yet the tax payable is down from $1004 million last year to $631 million this year.

    Woolworths’ revenue was virtually the same as last year’s but also cut its tax by nearly 40%. In 2015, group sales were $60.68 billion and tax paid was $1112.8 million. In 2016, sales were $60.19 billion but tax was down to $712.6 million. A sudden drop of 36%.”

    This revenue erosion goes right through our corporate sector and there’s no prize for guessing who has to make up for the shortfall.

  7. johnlward010

    Australians have been subject to half-truths and deceitful, fraudulent and misleading representations, secrecy and outright lies over the past ten years regarding climate change. Nonetheless, concern for unborn generations becomes more evident in conversations on the street. The Australian public is beginning to believe climate science.

    The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) was founded in 1943 after the breakup of the United Australia Party. The IPA was one of a number of groups which joined to form the Liberal Party of Australia. The policy agenda of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is linked directly to LNP policy.

    In 2013 before he won the prime ministership, at the dinner celebrating the Institute of Public Affair’s 70th anniversary, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott took the opportunity to commit to a raft of election promises with Mrs. Gina Rinehart, Mr. Rupert Murdoch, and Cardinal George Pell as his witnesses.

    He told the IPA, that the Coalition would indeed repeal the carbon tax, privatise Medibank Private, abolish the Department of Climate Change and abolish the Clean Energy Fund. It would also repeal the renewable energy target, devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states and privatise the CSIRO.

    These promises to the Institute of Public Affairs are significant because of its links to the fossil fuels industries. The IPA is funded by both private individuals and businesses. Among these businesses are mining companies, as well as British American Tobacco, Exxon- Mobil, WMC Resources, BHP Billiton, Phillip Morris, Caltex, Shell and Esso.

    To put these linkages in context: the law frowns on abuse of the authority of office i.e. to act with the intention to dishonestly gain a benefit for another person and/or cause a detriment to another. It is defined in law as ‘Misfeasance’.

    The object of The Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act (2012) is to facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector.

    The Act provides that a minimum of 50% of the CEFC portfolio must be invested in renewable energy technologies by 1 July 2018, or within five years of the first receipt of the Corporation’s funding into the Special Account. The balance of funds will be directed to investments in energy efficiency and low emissions technologies.

    The Investment Mandate issued 17 February 2015 was an attempt to alter or marginalise the operation of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, without securing appropriate amendments, which must be suggested and passed by the Senate, and to which the House of Representatives agrees.

    The tactical effect of the responsible ministers acting as de facto or shadow directors caused the required confusion, flux, hesitancy and uncertainties envisaged by the API.

    The Parliament which produced the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012 intended the Act not be easily diverted or altered by new directives inimical to its purposes.

    The public and verbal instruction by former Treasurer Hockey and Finance Minister Cormann to move away from wind generation and roof-top solar towards ‘emerging technologies’ was not only against the object of the Act, it was an attempt to instruct the Board of the CEFC not to invest in a particular area. This caused many in the industry, to have difficulty in attracting investment or gain finance. There are far too many who have been adversely affected across the industry.

    The attempted dismantling of the CEFC goes on.

    Prime Minister Turnbull took $1billion from the CEFC, funds that the previous parliament created, to fund his new Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF), intending to have the ARENA and the CEFC Act jointly as administrators of the CEIF. A further $ 1 bn will be ‘drawn ‘ from the “Green Bank ” to clean up the Barrier Reef ($0.6 Bn is mentioned in an advertisement. in the Australian newspaper for jobs to deliver higher water quality in farm runoff in what looks like a subsidy to sugar/ ethanol industry). https://www.evernote.com/l/AsKdMQ1P81VFNZAQH8RwICRawIMYQuxRBpw
    $100 mill is set aside to prevent the closure of the Steelworks in Whyalla SA, and Utas Northern Campus in Launceston is due a pledge of $150 million from the CEFC. These monies are part of the proposed Omnibus meant to wedge the ALP. Tasmanians can have an expanded Northern Campus or a renewable energy industry, but not both.

    This political deceit is a multi-billion dollar tort. The total pledged so far is $5.6 billion. Ministers have illegally planned to remove the disposable funds from the CEFC by pledging the total amount left in the CEFC; $2 Billion allocated on the first of July 2016, the day before the election, and the final tranche of $2 billion due on 1/7/2017.

    Prime Minister Turnbull’s pledges are described in the mainstream media as‚ a pea and thimble trick‚ the shifting of committed money from funds out of the so-called Green Bank (the CEFC), into the Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF) and other economic sectors favoured by the LNP and regarded by the electorate as worthwhile.

    These changes to the CEFC are still not legislated, despite being accounted for in the budget bottom line. ARENA still has a legislated spending program with $1.3 billion in uncommitted funding over the next six years. Presumably, the Turnbull Government believes it can legislate to change that in the new parliament. By retaining the $1.3bn in uncommitted funding over the next six years as government policy, it can reduce debt rather than enhance the renewables industry.

    Prime Minister Turnbull, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce, Former Prime Minister Abbott, Ministers Pyne, Hockey, Cormann and Hunt are attempting to convince the public that they and cabinet can re-purpose and re-direct the CEFC without going back through parliament.

    Let’s consider the limits the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012 imposes on the responsible Minister’s mandate.
    Section 65: The responsible Ministers must not give a direction under subsection 64(1):
    (a) that has the purpose, or has or is likely to have the effect, of directly or indirectly requiring the Board to, or not to, make a particular investment; or
    (b) that is inconsistent with this Act (including the object of this Act).

    The Ministers are in contempt of Parliament.

    The Parliament authorises the Executive Government to spend public money (not the other way around), by agreeing to government proposals for expenditure and taxation, scrutinises the administrative actions of the Government and serves as a forum for the debate of public policy.

    Before a Treasurer decides she or he may, or not be, inconsistent with the Act or the object of the Act, she or he must read the Act in the context of the ‘whole of the Act.’ The Treasurer and the Finance Minister have skirted around the law.

    If this gross ideological interference had not happened, the growth and jobs in this industry might have delivered some real balance to the downturns in other parts of the economy.

    During 1998, American Petroleum Institute’s (API), the USA’s largest oil trade association whose member companies include BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, and Shell outlined a “roadmap” for climate deception including a plan to have “average citizens” believe that the realities of climate science were uncertain.

    In Australia, the LNP and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) are still following the API line of climate deception despite the fact that many of the API’s members including Shell have withdrawn from this position and now publicly acknowledge the evidence of climate science. In September 2014, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in an interview with the Washington Post, said: “Let me be very, very clear. For us, climate change is real and it’s a threat that we want to act on. We’re not aligning with skeptics” (Mufson 2014)

    There are strong connections between the API and the IPA’s disinformation and the LNP campaign aims.
    The links are there. The wrongs have been committed. Let us join together to promote public debate on this matter.

  8. Kaye Lee

    This comes from a 2011 article (pre-carbon tax)

    “Next year, Qantas air fares will increase because of a 15 per cent penalty imposed by the EU on carriers from countries that have not introduced a carbon tax.”

    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/blunt-instrument/no-carbon-tax-europe-will-make-us-pay-instead-20110530-1fcu9.html

    It will be inevitable that sanctions of some sort will be imposed if we refuse to do our bit.

    As for the Murdoch influence….also from 2011….

    Entrepreneur Dick Smith says he was too “gutless” to feature in an advertising campaign supporting a carbon tax because he was afraid he would be criticised by Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers.

    Mr Smith said today he was asked to appear in the television ads alongside Oscar winning actor Cate Blanchett, but declined.

    “I didn’t appear on it because I knew that I would be a front page of lies in the Rupert Murdoch press here,” he said in Sydney today.

    “So there was no way I would destroy my name that way, I was gutless, I didn’t stand up for the truth.”

    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/gutless-dick-smith-declined-climate-ads-invite-20110530-1fbyf.html

  9. DisablednDesperate

    Carol I am one of those in DSP who has to see the doc once a month for scripts. She charges $42 gap and my meds are around $50. Now. Heavens help us if they make it worse. Guess I should be grateful I haven’t been kicked off….yet.

  10. Kronomex

    1. To paraphrase Little Britain: Coal says no.
    3. Turnbull will give in, he’ll mumble a few words that mean little and give in without even a bitch slap fight.

  11. helvityni

    Knonomex, and soon Oz will be the only ‘village’ in the world where the gays can’t get married; with all our monies spent on plebiscites there will be no more dough left for weddings anyhow…not fair.

  12. Keith

    A number of people followed Bernie Fraser when he resigned his position with the Climate Change Authority; not hard to understand when having to deal with a government of climate change deniers/luke warmers. While Bernie Fraser and Co managed the Climate Change Authority its suggestions were what are needed. A suggestion from a private Agency has been that since Bernie Fraser et al left the CCA that management has been stacked.

  13. Kaye Lee

    Late last year, Turnbull appointed five new board members to the climate change authority.

    *former National Farmers Federation head Wendy Craik
    *Kate Carnell, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a former Liberal chief minister of the ACT
    *Danny Price, an economist and managing director of Frontier Economics, who has advised the government on its Direct Action policies that replaced the carbon price scrapped in July 2014
    *John Sharp, a former Nationals politician and federal transport in John Howard’s government before stepping down after questions raised over his use of ministerial travel expenses
    *Stuart Allinson, the chief executive of Bid Energy.

    I trust NOTHING Kate Carnell is associated with.

  14. bobrafto

    How come there has been no mention of the Rolex watches given to the Libs? Nicely swept under the carpet.

  15. Terry2

    Kate Carnell is a committed and blinkered apologist for the coalition and has lost whatever objectivity she ever had : she and Gerard Henderson seem to be the token right wing commentators that the ABC turn to – The Drum and Insiders – why does the ABC do this ?

    The only objective and impartial commentator from the right I can think of is John Hewson but I guess, even he has been pushed to the center left as the “Liberals” lurch further to the Right.

    Strange times in Oz.

  16. Carol Taylor

    DisablednDesperate, we are fortunate enough to now live in a bulk billing area which the LNP would love to see being a scarcity but I know exactly what you mean – suddenly being confronted by a GP who charged $75.00 for a 10 MINUTE consultation and $120.00 for 20 MINUTES..up front if you don’t mind. There are of course many people who don’t have $75.00 or $120.00 UPFRONT and still be able to purchase their medication on top of it.

    I firmly believe that a vast majority of the LNP remain in an absolute ‘fog’ as regards things which might happen to people which might see them ending up on the DSP. Because it ‘can’t’ happen to them, therefore others are looked down upon as ‘leaners’.

    Not that I would wish misfortune on anyone, but sometimes I would like to see the whole lot of ’em lose their fortunes, lose their jobs, lose their health – then let’s see how they would cope on the pittance they call the DSP.

  17. helvityni

    Terry, enjoyed the pairing of Marr and Henderson on the Insiders, David always managed to shrink Hendo to into a foetal position. When Kate appears, I get up to feed the dog. Hewson must be just about the Liberal politician I don’t mind…

    ABC is leaning to the right, I still watch Four Corners, Q&A, and the Gruen Transfer…the rest is repeats, and more repeats…

  18. Harquebus

    Something about climate science not told on our tellies.

    “So here’s what happened. Exxon used its knowledge of climate change to plan its own future. The company, for instance, leased large tracts of the Arctic for oil exploration, territory where, as a company scientist pointed out in 1990, “potential global warming can only help lower exploration and development costs.” Not only that but, “from the North Sea to the Canadian Arctic,” Exxon and its affiliates set about “raising the decks of offshore platforms, protecting pipelines from increasing coastal erosion, and designing helipads, pipelines, and roads in a warming and buckling Arctic.” In other words, the company started climate-proofing its facilities to head off a future its own scientists knew was inevitable.
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176105/tomgram%3A_bill_mckibben%2C_it%27s_not_just_what_exxon_did%2C_it%27s_what_it%27s_doing/

    “Despite Exxon’s advanced scientific understanding of the role of CO2 pollution from fossil fuel burning causing atmospheric disruption, the company shelved its internal concerns and launched a sophisticated, global campaign to sow doubt and create public distrust of climate science.”
    http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/04/26/there-no-doubt-exxon-knew-co2-pollution-was-global-threat-late-1970s

    “Exxon Mobil’s decision to hide research that confirmed fossil fuels’ role in global warming for decades amounts to “unparalleled evil,” environmentalist Bill McKibben said.”
    “In its greed Exxon helped — more than any other institution — to kill our planet.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/exxon-evil-bill-mckibben_us_561e7362e4b028dd7ea5f45f

    “Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson

    Cheers.

  19. Max Gross

    Of course Talcolm Furball has a plan! His plan is to remain PM for as long as possible!

  20. Freethinker

    IMO waiting for the politicians to do something about climate change, pollution and equality it is a waste of time.
    Many thousands of Australian people just voted for a party that would like to start a Royal Commission to investigate the possible fraudulent motives by the science community regarding climate change.
    There is not hope a change, just two elections passed when people voted to remove the CT because it will cost them 2 or 3 cappuccinos a week.
    We got to one stage that the only solution it is people power to reverse the climate change causes and to do that it will require material sacrifice which equals reduce consumerism.
    In today’s news we read that toxic nanoparticles from air pollution have been discovered in human brains in “abundant” quantities, a newly published study which reveals possible links between these magnetite particles and Alzheimer’s disease.
    Meanwhile we are busy in destroying the planet to satisfy our greed.

    Changes begin at home.

  21. jim

    But wait there’s more,..more cuts to come of course, you bet you is, with the worst government it near 50 years.
    We have the worst government . since 1949 and it’s the LNP,……As the Australia Institute’s research in June found – across a broad range of economic measures, the Abbott/Turnbull government has performed the worst of any Australian government since 1949. Economist Jim Stanford’s report examines economic performance across 12 indicators – including GDP per capita, the unemployment rate, employment growth and the growth of real business investment and intellectual property investment …

  22. Freethinker

    I’m not sure how long it is since Barry Jones as Science Minister in the Hawke Government first raised the issue of climate change. I recall Hawke asking what on earth he was on about.

    Would not surprise me, Barry was one of the last politicians with brains in ACT.

    Regarding global warming and deforestation,just as a matter of information, I like to mention that during the era c. 371 – c. 287 BC, Theophrastus who has a successor of Aristotle mentioned the effects of deforestation and the effects on the mashes.
    I just wonder if Pauline Hanson will say that Theophrastus was corrupt…………

  23. guest

    The question I want answered right now is:

    If the Coalition has stopped the boats and has stopped people from drowning, what is the point now of indefinitely torturing people on Manus and Nauru?

  24. paulwalter

    This is a really good thread, but I see Carol Taylor has yet again sniffed out a problem, this time to do with the health system and GP billing system.

    I am drawn to it in light of having just been subjected to ten minutes of utter spin on the subject from hyper lobbyist Kate Carnell on the Drum.

    The legal folk are right. Carnell knowledge is seriously criminal.

  25. johnlward010

    There is now clear evidence of fraud, misleading and deceptive conduct by members of Cabinet. This crookedness needs to be exposed. The sectional interests of our Government Ministers’ Corporate donors are taking precedence over the national interest, and the sustainability of financing for the Renewable Energy Industry.

    In 2015,Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann directed the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to exclude investments in household and small-scale solar from the $10 billion fund in the future.The draft investment mandate called for “mature and established clean energy technologies … including wind technology and household small-scale solar” to be excluded from the Corporation’s activities.

    Fortunately, the authority for any amendments comes from the Parliament not the Executive.
    The Executive cannot change an Act of Parliament. The Parliament also authorises the Executive Government to spend public money (not the other way around).

    Any change such as the revocation of a part and/or a new investment mandate to the CEFC Act 2012 may only be modified by amendments made, requested or agreed to by the Senate. Stephen Keim QC has provided advice to environmental groups about the Government’s ability to direct the CEFC. He said the Government had the power to put in place an investment mandate but it had to “tread a fairly thin line”.

    During 1998, American Petroleum Institute (API), the USA’s largest oil trade association (member companies include BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Exxon-Mobil and Shell) planned a “roadmap” for a climate of deception, including a plan to have “average citizens” believe that the realities of climate science were vague and uncertain.

    Australians have been subject to half-truths and deceitful, fraudulent and misleading representations, secrecy and outright lies regarding climate change over the past ten years by the people we elected to represent our wishes. We have seen the power of the mining industry (super profit mining tax) and those who represents their interests in our Parliament. The same dynamics operate around the coal, oil & gas sectors.

    The direct effect of the CEFC responsible Ministers acting as de facto or shadow directors of the CEFC has been to create the perception that Australian policy support for clean energy is uncertain or diminished.
    These are the same negative outcomes envisaged by the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) 1998 campaign.

    A third entity involved in this deception is the pressure group, the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). The IPA was founded by a conglomerate of like-minded groups at the same time as the Liberal Party in 1943-44 after the break-up of the United Australia Party. The policy agenda of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has been linked directly to LNP policy ever since.

    To put these linkages in context: The law frowns on abuse of the authority of elected office i.e. to act with the intention to dishonestly gain a benefit for another person and/or cause detriment to another. This behaviour is defined in law as ‘Misfeasance’ In most cases, the essentials to bring an action of misfeasance in public office are; that the office-holder acted illegally, knew he/she was doing so, and knew or should reasonably have known that third parties would suffer loss as a result.

    The last Parliament (2013-2016) twice declined to allow the Executive’s Bill to Abolish the CEFC to become law. Subsequently, the Executive arm of Government had tried for two years to change the CEFC investment mandate.
    Recently in caretaker mode, the LNP attempted to create a different investment mandate directive (in order to appear to the electors to have authority) to modify the intent of the CEFC Act, without returning to the Parliament (which BTW no longer existed). So apparently they were preparing to seek such an alteration to the CEFC Act in (the next) the 45th Parliament.

    During the election campaign Prime Minister Turnbull purported to have the authority to redistribute $1billion from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to fund his new Clean Energy Innovation Fund (CEIF).

    $1 billion was also set aside to finance a ‘Better Cities Fund’ announced two thirds of the way through the campaign.

    And a further $1 billion ‘drawn ‘ from the “Green Bank ” to clean up the Barrier Reef ($0.6 Billion) is mentioned in an advertisement in the Australian newspaper for jobs to deliver higher water quality in farm runoff in what looks like a subsidy to sugar / ethanol industry.

    $100 million was set aside to prevent the closure of the Steelworks in Whyalla SA, and the University of Tasmania’s Northern Campus in Launceston received a pledge of $150 million to be extracted from the CEFC.

    These monies from ARENA are part of the proposed omnibus legislation meant to wedge the ALP. Prime Minister Turnbull is fundamentally saying to Tasmanians “you can have an expanded Northern Campus or a renewable energy industry, but you cannot have not both”.

    The total pledged so far is $5.6 billion.

    Ministers have conspired to remove all funds from the CEFC by pledging the total amount left in the CEFC to other good causes.

    At the same time Malcolm Turnbull is subsidising the fossil fuel industry with $24 billion of taxpayer funds. This includes exploration funding for Geoscience Australia and tax deductions for mining and petroleum exploration.

    Prime Minister Turnbull, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce, Former Prime Minister Abbott, Ministers Pyne, Hockey, Cormann and Hunt are attempting to falsely convince the public that the Cabinet can “re-purpose and re-direct the Act” without going back through the Parliament. These changes to the CEFC Act 2012 are still to be legislated.

    Let’s consider the limits the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012 imposes on the responsible Minister’s mandate.
    Section 65: The responsible Ministers must not give a direction under subsection 64(1):
    (a) that has the purpose, or has or is likely to have the effect, of directly or indirectly requiring the Board to, or not to, make a particular investment; or
    (b) that is inconsistent with this Act (including the object of this Act).

    The object of The Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act (2012) is to facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector.

    Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann attempted to skirt around the law. If this gross ideological interference had not happened, the growth and jobs in the clean energy industry might have delivered some real balance to the downturns in other parts of the economy.

    The LNP Cabinet is in contempt of Parliament. Its Ministers have betrayed our trust.

    The LNP and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) are still using the same script, still following the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) line of climate deception.

    In a move away from API policy, in September 2014, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in an interview with the Washington Post said: “Let me be very, very clear. For us, climate change is real and it’s a threat that we want to act on. We’re not aligning with sceptics” (Mufson 2014), Mufson is a director of Shell USA.

    There are strong connections between the API and the IPA’s disinformation and the LNP campaign aims.

    The links are there. The wrongs have been done. Let us join together to promote public debate on this matter.

    http://www.theenergycollective.com/gcooperrfa/227356/busting-big-oil-myths-renewable-fuel-standard-part-i
    Surgey 2014b; ALEC 2011; ALEC 2010
    Center for Media and Democracy. 2015b. Corporations that have cut ties to ALEC. Sourcewatch, May 14.

    Online at http://www.sourcewatch. org/index.php/Corporations_that_Have_Cut_Ties_to_ALEC, accessed May 18, 2015.

    Mufson, S. 2014. CEO of Royal Dutch Shell: Climate change discussion “has gone into la-la land.” Washington Post, September 10.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/ 09/10/ceo-of-royal-dutch-shell-climate-change-discussion-has- gone-into-la-la-land, accessed April 28, 2015.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/20/how-the-coalition-is-using-clean-energy-financing-as-an-election-slush-fund-australia#nav-allsections

    http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/turnbulls-sleight-of-hand-on-clean-energy-investment-63202
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/abbotts-climate-change-policy-is-bullshit-20091206-kdmb.html
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-13/government-accused-of-trying-to-shut-down-cefc-by-stealth/6614446

    http://www.ucsusa.org/The-Climate-Deception-Dossiers.pdf
    https://www.evernote.com/l/AsJujKYg-uhL2pFHNTK32bRvRxvNblM3J6A

    http://www.ucsusa.org/The-Climate-Deception-Dossiers.pdf

    https://www.evernote.com/l/AsKdMQ1P81VFNZAQH8RwICRawIMYQuxRBpw

    http://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/news/2016/September/arena-open-letter-innovation-leaders.html

    Fraudulent representation means making of a false statement about a material fact, with the knowledge that such statement is false, to another person with an intention that such other person to whom that statement is made must believe it as true and must act upon it resulting in an injury to the person to whom such false representation is made.

    http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Global_Climate_Science_Communications_Plan_(1998)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page