In November 2009, Four Corners aired a program called Malcolm and the Malcontents.
At the time, Malcolm Turnbull was leader of the Liberal party but his support for an ETS was being challenged by Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce and Cory Bernardi who feature in the program.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had ominously identified climate change as “one of the great moral, economic and environmental challenges of our age.”
Malcolm Turnbull passionately stated that he would “not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am.”
Three weeks later, Turnbull was gone.
The program is a must watch and should be compulsory viewing for every parliamentarian. Eight years on and the situation is the same, the players are the same, and the misinformation continues.
To watch it, click on the following link and then click on play in the top left corner under the title.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20091109/ETS/
If you prefer, you can read the transcript here.
You won’t be disappointed. The similarities with today are uncanny.
As you listen or read, pay particular attention to Barnaby Joyce’s role in all this.
Move on to a Guardian article from 2012. Same people bleating on.
Many of the climate sceptics, influential in elevating Tony Abbott to Coalition leader, say they see nothing to convince them that human activity is causing the climate to change.
”It is an indulgent and irrelevant debate because, even if climate change turns out to exist one day, we will have absolutely no impact on it whatsoever … we really should have bigger fish to fry than this one,” Senator Joyce said.
South Australian senator Cory Bernardi, formerly Mr Abbott’s parliamentary secretary, said: ”I do not think human activity causes climate change and I haven’t seen anything that changes my view. I remain very sceptical about the alarmists’ claims.”
When Warren Truss was considering retiring, there was a significant number of the Nationals Party room who wanted “anyone but Barnaby.”
Mr Joyce has been accused by those within the Nationals of being a “grandstander”, of needing complex information in a small number of dot points and not putting in enough hard work. Others love him as a “retail politician” — able to cut through with one-liners.
Jumping ahead to April 2017, and Barnaby Joyce expressed ‘surprise’ when the NSW Young Nationals backed a resolution for an emissions intensity scheme.
Barnaby dismissively responded saying “I had lots of ideas when I was starting off in the National Party, too. And some of them change over time, like John Maynard Keynes [said], ‘As I get new information, I change my mind. What do you do?'”
I see no sign of evidence ever changing Barnaby’s mind.
The EIS proposal has the support of the Labor Party, National Farmers Federation, Business Council of Australia, Australian Industry Group, Origin Energy, BHP Billiton, EnergyAustralia, the Australian Energy Market Commission, Senator Nick Xenophon, as well as the Young Nationals and others.
How come Barnaby, with Abbott and Bernardi shouting from the rear seat, STILL get to say no?
