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Malcolm’s test

In six weeks’ time, we will see if Malcolm Turnbull is a leader of substance or a snake oil salesman.

You have to admire his courage in deciding to personally attend the climate change talks in Paris but if he tries to push the Greg Hunt propaganda, he will get called out on it. Some 150 of the 200 or so countries attending have submitted their plans to move to a low carbon future and I doubt they will take kindly to spin.

Both the IMF and the World Bank, along with a growing number of world leaders, are calling for a price on carbon but Malcolm promised the Nationals and the right of his party that he wouldn’t do that.

As recently as July, we had two Western Australian Liberal MPs calling for an inquiry into the evidence of human influence on climate change.

“I’m open to being convinced but the data and the evidence that I’ve seen [on climate change] thus far certainly I don’t find compelling,” said Dennis Jensen. “You get the appeal to consensus when the data and the evidence is weak and it’s an appeal to authority rather than examining the data and the evidence.”

Dr Jensen said he was not alone within the party, and that there were “at least” 10 MPs who shared his view that the Government should not sign up to emissions cuts without a parliamentary inquiry.

We have Cory Bernardi whose argument runs along the lines of “Well, the Earth’s climate changes all the time, always has, always will and this happened well before we came along burning fossil fuels. Oh and by the way the world stopped warming since 1998 and I just saw an article the other day saying Chlorofluorocarbons were the real culprit of warming not CO2.”

Senator Fierravanti-Wells reminds us that CO2 is plant food which I assume means she thinks increased levels will be good for agriculture.

And then there’s George Christensen who, when addressing the Heartland Institute last year, said “The weather and climate in Australia has not changed in the last century but a new religious interpretation has arisen since then. When we are in a flood, they tell us ‘too much rain is a sign, more hurricanes is a sign, fewer hurricanes is a sign, the sky is blue – it’s a sign, gravity – it’s a sign’.”

The most strident critic of carbon pricing and the man who worked tirelessly to bring it down, Barnaby Joyce, is being touted as our next leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said this month that the El Nino was now on course to challenge the 1997-98 event as the strongest on record, and was not expected to peak until late this year.

September was not only the seventh month so far this year to set a new record for heat, it was also the most anomalously hot month in 135 years of data, NOAA said and predictions are that 2015 will easily eclipse heat records in previous years.

Malcolm is going to have to explain why we are approving huge new coal mines and, with China and India both looking to cut coal imports, it is unlikely the ‘lift them out of poverty’ excuse will wash on the international stage.

Will he defend the Direct Action Plan that he previously described as “bullshit” and prohibitively expensive?

In an interview with the Guardian, Turnbull said “If something isn’t working as well as you want, chuck it out. I’m not afraid of people saying, it’s a backdown, or a backflip, an agile government is prepared to abandon policies that don’t work.”

We shall see.

 

69 comments

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  1. Blinky Ewok

    Turnbull has the opportunity to make changes in policy even if it upsets the right wing extremists. They are hardly likely to dump him and return Abbott. By the policies Turnbull adopts, we will know the mettle of the man.

  2. Kaye Lee

    Nationals sources have told the Financial Review that central to the agreement is a commitment to “no carbon tax, and no emissions trading scheme” for the life of his prime ministership. There is also a commitment that Mr Turnbull will take the already announced targets for emissions reduction to Paris climate change talks.

    http://www.afr.com/news/politics/election/malcolm-turnbull-woos-nationals-with-competition-backflip-4b-deal-20150915-gjn0ke#ixzz3pUC1IEUp

    Why do leaders keep doing this? Julia Gillard with “no carbon tax”, Tony Abbott with “no cuts to…”. This is really going to be interesting as to how Malcolm handles it but I think he has made a big mistake with this promise. Will he be able to at least introduce cap and trade?

  3. kerri

    Even Hamish and Andy this week likened Malcolm Turnbull’s appearance in Paris to the naughty boy sitting outside the principal’s office!

  4. kerri

    Could not agree more Kaye Lee! Ever since Bob Hawke’s “no child shall live in poverty….” Why do politicians make iron clad promises that go beyond what they are capable of keeping?

  5. silkworm

    When Gillard said “no carbon tax,” she kept her word. Her opponents, principally Abbott, verballed her, by omitting the rest of her commitment, which was to introduce carbon pricing. Gillard made the distinction between a tax and a price. Abbott deliberately conflated the two, and concocted the lie that she broke her word. Greg Combet made a half-hearted attempt to defend her, but quickly gave up, as the entire media, including the ABC, were using the same word-mincing tactics as Abbott.

  6. Wally

    Finding Turnbull very hard to follow since becoming PM, he seems to be flapping in the breeze. One minute he is talking positively like he has a plan and a vision for the future then he comes out with a statement like this “We’ve got to become more imaginative in the way we seek to finance urban infrastructure.’’ . Seems that much of what comes out of his mouth is what he believes we want to hear and then he slips in a subtle line that contradicts where you thought he was taking us.

  7. Matters Not

    Why do politicians make iron clad promises that go beyond what they are capable of keeping?

    A good question. First, politicians are, first and foremost, in the business of being elected to office, because If you’re not ‘there’ you’re soon historically irrelevant. So the first task is to be elected. While the ‘goal’ of being ‘elected’ is beyond dispute, the ‘means’ are more problematic, and always have consequences ‘down the track’. But that’s a ‘tomorrow’ problem.

    Thus aspiring politicians are always concerned with the here and now.

    Second, as to the ‘capable of keeping’, the average politician regards that as a problem for the morrow and to be easily dealt with, via explanations like ‘changed circumstances’. After all, the electors have very short memories, even from those who claim to pay attention.

    At a State level read how many ‘extra’ teachers, for example, will be provided in the coming year (the promise) and then look at the outcome. The gap between the ‘promises’ and the ‘outcomes’ are enormous. It’s the ‘promises’ that win elections not the ‘delivery’.

    But who notices?

    Unless of course, the MSM keep watch. And they do but only for the political party of their own choosing.

  8. Florence nee Fedup

    So DA and NBNCo will top his list to get the flick,

  9. Florence nee Fedup

    I think Keating summed it up in latest interview show this week. Said that Turnbull could be a good PM. could make problems for Labor.

    Could it the important word. Only if he is allowed to do what he wants, able to pull that radical right wing into line. Gave impression that won’t happen.

    Also said that Shorten was a man with Labor values. I suspect in that, Keating is also right. Labor values that are possible in this century and global world.

    The show on ABC TV is worth catching up with.

  10. Kaye Lee

    The company building Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s version of the national broadband network has purchased 1800 kilometres of copper cable — enough to link the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne — at a cost of $14 million.

    The copper cable is being used as part of the fibre-to-the-node component of Prime Minister Turnbull’s NBN rollout and is expected to only be enough to last for the next five months of the build.

    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/nbn-co-buys-1800-kilometres-of-copper-to-make-malcolm-turnbulls-fibretothenode-network-work-20151020-gke5oy.html#ixzz3pUdGfK8t

  11. Florence nee Fedup

    PM explanation is that copper is required to tie copper to fibre. Don’t believe so. he also said copper in better state that expected. Don’t believe that.

    Problem for PM, replacing useless copper with fibre would result in fibre to premises. Can’t have that,

  12. Ella

    Florence nee Fedup, “Keeting said, Turnbull could be a good PM”
    I agree , he has the gift of the gab, a reasonable salesman, BUT can he beat the extreem conservatives in the LNP?

    The mere fact that he is continuing the policies of Abbott tells me that maybe not. It is as much about policies as personality.
    I hope that the voting public will listen carefully to the policies because they are what will affect our lives. Not the PM’s charm offensive.

  13. lawrencesroberts

    Malcolm speaks with forked tongue.

  14. Florence nee Fedup

    Ella, he is all over the place with that charm offensive in QT. will start as answer with the charm laid on. Will set off to give direct answer, then waving his hands, arm drift off into waffle. Ones gets the impression that he is bored, talking to idiots. Would rather be elsewhere.

    Not a good QT performer I suspect. His dramatics as a barrister, might work in court, but don’t transfer well to floor QT.

    In fact I am surprised to see this. I thought he would have shone in that role.

  15. Florence nee Fedup

    I think the PM has a obsession to be more than liked. He wants to be admired. His actions scream, what a great man am I.

  16. stephengb2014

    Well I thought Turnbulls assention to power was expertly planned and executed, he let Abbott have all the rope he needed to prove himself an idiot and then Tirnbull stuck at a time when there was no chance of an Abbott come back in time for the 2016 election. This gave Turnbull the time he needed to turn the ship around, its working the ship is turning!
    Meanwhile putting himself up for Paris serves a big purpose it tests Hunts back bone and puts himself in the driver seat for Australia’s next most important international meeting, Malcom needs this opportunity to correct Australia’s international reputation, which has been sullied by the Abbott factor!
    I would suggest that Turnbull will have planned this execise as well as his attack on Abbott. Turnbull still has the right extremists to put in their place and he will do this in a way that leaves them no room to push back, Paris will be a perfect opportunity for him to stamp his authority on those Abbott supporters in his cabinet.
    All eyes will be on him in Paris, I do not believe Turnbull is going there wthout a plan!

  17. i have a nugget of pure green

    you have to wonder about the fitness of people to be in parliament some times, well, a lot of the time.

  18. Terry2

    If Turnbull wins with a convincing margin at the next election I think he will take that as a personal mandate and the Conservative Right will just have to get on with it. If he has less than a convincing margin he will have to toe the line with the conservatives.

    What Abbott does will be instructive ; if he leaves parliament – and having signed up for the speakers circuit tends to indicate that he will, not that I can see that keeping him very busy – then Turnbull should get a free run as there is just nobody in the Liberal Party who could or would challenge with the possible exception of Julie Bishop but she already has a dream job and would be silly to want to trade that.

    Labor, as anticipated, have a major problem with Turnbull and have lost an electoral ally with the demise of Abbott. However, to even consider changing Shorten is not an option in the short term as they have the same deficit of talent as the Libs.

    The comforting thing about the state of Australian governance at the moment is that Abbott was dumped by a majority in his own party and that was a positive and optimistic move against a man who gained leadership by a single vote and comprehensively failed as a leader.

    In my view, Australian democracy is in a good place at the present and there are plenty of reasons to have confidence that Turnbull will prove to be a good Prime Minister.

  19. mars08

    Terry2:

    If Turnbull wins with a convincing margin at the next election I think he will take that as a personal mandate and the Conservative Right will just have to get on with it…

    Well that’s an interesting way to look at it!

    OR…. Turnbull could use such a “convincing margin” to carry on with the same old neo-liberal agenda as leader of a popular, reinvigorated and united Coalition. It really depends on the true character and ideology of the man.

    I have no reason to be optimistic.

  20. Kaye Lee

    Scott Morrison would disagree that there is no-one else in the Libs. Make no mistake, he wants the top job and the right would no doubt prefer him to Malcolm.

    One thing, Malcolm at least cancelled the $4 million gift to Bjorn Lomberg.

  21. Jagger

    Malcolm going to Paris to defend DA which he’s previously called “bullshit”, shows the Narcissistic personality he has been shown to possess.

  22. Aortic

    Lack of action on climate change is frightening enough, but Barnaby Joyce as deputy Prime Minister is equally scary.

  23. Florence nee Fedup

    I think the clue lies within the Keating interview. Keating warn that if they voted for Howard they would get the GST. Not only get it, but his Opposition wouldn’t be voting against it.

    Same applies next election. We will be getting, whatever Turnbull says. That is if Turnbull unlike Abbott bothers to tell us in clear English what his agenda is.

  24. Florence nee Fedup

    Morrison was not lying when he said he didn’t want treasurer’s job. The job he was planning, working on was the top job,

  25. Florence nee Fedup

    PM could keep DA while adapting it to bring about carbon emissions being costed. Leaving DA shell but redesigning all within its walls. Not hard to do.

    Trouble is, if this was the PM aim, he wouldn’t be going ahead, repealing what is still left of the CEF suite of legislation.

  26. corvus boreus

    Personally, I take every rational justification for cautious optimism/diminished pessimism available to me.
    The ascendance of Turnbull in oblique rejection of the Abbott agenda is one such cause for muted hope.
    Whilst arrogant cynicism is not an ideal quality of leadership, it is definitely preferable to rabid lunacy.

    As polling has improved for the coalition, Turnbull has started shifting his rhetoric away from previous coalition policies.
    The increasingly shrill squawks and feral howls now emanating from the far right of politics and media (the Bolts and Arbetzes) give credence to the view that the national agenda has been taken out of the direct control of the IPA/tea party club.
    Our PM no longer exclusively and sycophantically ‘communicates’ through the medium of shock-jocks.
    Constructive discussion is starting to replace testerical sledging as the preferred form of political discourse.
    I hope this trend continues; it might even shake and wake Labor from the current habit of falling ever further to the right.
    Thus far, I much prefer the tuning sounds of the new Mal-adminstration to the previous ‘mono-Tone’ cacophony.

    Likewise, our new Prime Minister choosing to personally fly to Paris to discuss measures for reducing climate destabilizing atmospheric emissions with the other world leaders is a move which can only be seen as encouraging.
    This will help to remove the ordurous stain of previous obstructionist conduct from our national reputation, with the possible added bonus that, when the clever people start talking climate science, Mal might even be bright and sane enough to listen to them.

    I understand we have a long way to go to regain full rights to unreserved national pride, and credible confidence for the future.
    For example, we still unaccountably contract out the long-term incarceration of people (including pregnant women and young children), under conditions ranging from inhumane to downright brutal, without trial, for something which is not a crime.

    However, I no longer live each day filled with a rational trepidation of further erosions of our legal rights and common decency.
    To me, that’s an improvement.

  27. diannaart

    We have to wait ‘n see – at present all we can expect is for Turnbull to placate the far-right faction in the LNP. Whether he can make changes (work around) existing policies will take time – I expect after Paris we will have a clearer idea. Somehow, the far-right clods will be brought into the light of reality – but it was never going to be easy and whether it will be in time to mitigate the worst of climate change is unlikely.

    As for those nuff-nuffs who like to point out the climate has always changed (WTF? As if scientists would not have noticed), is there some way to explain that life on earth was vastly different under difference climates?…. what am I thinking, these people believe the planet is only 6000 years old?

  28. diannaart

    Just read your post CB

    I agree, in so far as we at least have a PM who is prepared to go to Paris and one who will possess the intellect to follow the conference.

    However, as Keating said, ‘the bar was set very low’.

  29. gangey1959

    I like reading stuff on here.
    @ diannaart. What bar ?
    I have read a few things about turnbullshit from his uni daze, and just maybe we have a hope after all.
    And maybe I’m just dreaming. Again.

  30. Keith

    The expose on ExxonMobil in regard to agreeing with the science in the 1970s and 80s; and then, doing everything possible to undermine the science, is hopefully a lever which undermines the loony extreme right wing of the Liberal Party. In 1984 ExxonMobil even modelled the future state of the Arctic, which has been found to have been right.
    There are calls by Bernie Sanders, a US Presidential candidate to create an enquiry with the possibility of legal action.

    Sanders Calls for Investigation of ‘Potential Corporate Fraud’ by Exxon

    Early signs suggest that whatever might be agreed in Paris will not be enough; there will be further International meetings. Though the question arises would those meetings be too late? The Amazon Basin is in a bad state at present through drought, Indonesian wildfires are extreme, and the wildfires in the Arctic Boreal forests were extreme; the question arises just how much extra unaccounted for CO2 will be pumped into the atmosphere? Have any tipping points ben created? In regard to drought in the Amazon the forests rather than being a sink for CO2 can begin to expel it instead when highly stressed.

  31. diannaart

    @gangey1959

    I heard the comment that Abbott’s loss from the Liberal party ‘set the bar pretty low’ or words to that effect – somewhere, sometime recently. Sounds pure Keating to me, but a search around the internet, reveals nothing, nada.

    Guess I just wanted it to be true, because since Abbott the bar for PM is set ridiculously low.

  32. Kaye Lee

    diannaart & gangey,

    That quote came from Kerry O’Brien’s interview with Keating. He was talking about leaders and saying the bar had been set low lately. He thinks Malcolm is a better person than he was first time round and he also thinks Shorten is a good Labor man with good Labor values. It will become a contest of ideas hopefully.

    http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/whatson/paul_keating.aspx

  33. diannaart

    Excellent work my friend, I am not mistaken. Yay.

    I am withholding judgement on Turnbull (maybe he’s new ‘n improved maybe not), Shorten? Keeps hiding his light a little too well, besides Keating remains more Labor-Right like Shorten. He and Hawke started the privatisation ball rolling after all.

  34. Wally

    Corvus

    You expressed your views very well and with Abbott on the backbench it feels as if politics has done a 180 degree back flip for the better.

    I hope as time goes on we don’t come to the realisation that Turnbull is/was a Trojan Horse, the extreme right have nothing to lose by riding on the positives and then swiftly dump Turnbull after winning the next election. The next 6-8 weeks are critical to the LNP chances of winning the next election but we will not know if Turnbull can control/manage the right wing factions until after the next election.

  35. Roswell

    And we like reading your stuff too, gangey. You’re always welcome here IMHO.

  36. Florence nee Fedup

    PM has another option to controlling the extreme powerful right wing in the party.

    He could settle for convincing the public, neoliberal policies are good for us.

    Most likely and easiest path for him to take.

  37. metadatalata

    What I hope will happen at the Paris conference is this:
    Malcolm knows he is taking something that is unworkable to it. And he is on the record saying that DA is stupid and unworkable. He can only expect that the outcome of this meeting for Australia will be that we will be required to accept a wholesale change to climate policy where CO2 emissions are priced and traded with much more aggressive reduction targets. I would also expect that governments will be mandated to invest heavily into renewable energy by promoting small and medium scale technology that will enable any household or small business the opportunity to get off the corporate power grid and punish those companies that either dig up or sell coal.

    However, this plan that would reduce the problem of extreme climate change is not what the right-wing nut-jobs in the current LNP have in mind for the minions.

    I have trouble reading Malcolm. He has in the past railed against DA and Fibre to the node but has flipped completely on these and a number of other policies in his bid to get to the top of the pollie food-chain. He has been manipulating people and conversation for so long, I wonder if he really has any backbone to actually do something for Australians and for the world.

    I guess it is too late to do anything but wait and see whether he can change the Liebral Party or whether he is content in bending over and succumbing to corporate greed like his predecessor and the rest of his whacky party.

    It is great reading your stuff, Kaye. Keep up the great work. It makes a difference to a lot of people.

  38. gangey1959

    Hey guys. I don’t tink you heard the sarcasm in my voice when I was talking about the bar. Personally I would use it to beat them all to death.

  39. diannaart

    My first thought was to make some joke about a cocktail bar, but then I thought you were serious.

    We need an irony emoji.

  40. Fiona

    Kaye Lee,

    Scott Morrison would disagree that there is no-one else in the Libs.

    Mal Brough would also disagree, and to be honest if I were Turnbull I’d be much more worried about Mal B than Scrot.

  41. paul walter

    I commend Mars 08’s response to Terry 2, 9.47 this morning.

  42. Friday

    Joyce may have worked to bring pricing down but without his little helpers in the senate he was weeing into the wind.

  43. Fiona

    I should add that I don’t trust Turnbull farther than I could throw him which, these days with a protesting shoulder wouldn’t be very far – even though once upon a time I tossed one of my (male) lecturers into a fountain.

  44. paul walter

    Hopefully you will get to do the same with Turnbull, if our suspicions are proved correct. I’m sure many here would be glad to lend a hand.

  45. kizhmet

    I’ve been over to SMH and trowelled the comments there. Many are not fooled by Turnbull – same comment time and again, “still Abbott’s policies”. One undeniable positive is the obvious change in political discourse. What a huge relief to see rationality and civilty, to listen to fully formed sentences with more than three words. It isn’t whether or not Turnbull is likeable, it’s about the policies. As long as the LNP is hijacked by the RWNJ, it remains anathema irrespective of who leads it.

    Turnbull attending Paris is a plus- he has the smarts to listen. Imagine “IQ smaller than my shoe-size Hunt” – *cringe*. Investment in renewables, CET. Does Turnbull have his own “wish list” he will introduce if re-elected?

    Scot Morrison and Mal Brough would both be an unmitigated disaster for this country – (possibly)less divisive than Abbott but far, far, more dangerous; they would make our time under Abbott look like a Sunday picnic.

    I dream the LNP splits with the extreme right setting up its own political faction leaving the LNP a more “centre-right” liberal party … then I wake up.

  46. helvityni

    Fiona, LOL, for acting so decisively with your male lecturer in the past. As for whom Mal should fear most: I find both Brough and ScoMo very very scary…big bullies, no hearts.

  47. Matthew Oborne

    Malcolm Turnbull has decided to stick to the plebiscite on gay marriage because he says it was an election promise.

    Already he is blowing smoke in the metaphorical fashion.
    Cuts planned to welfare still
    Not reversing broken promises yet he is already failing.

    Had enough of the snake oil salesman already He has shown what he is.

  48. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Turnbull appears to bring dignity and decorum into the LNP’s incumbency but I don’t trust him either to make any significant differences to the substantial true socio-economic reforms that are needed.

    Vulnerable people in ever-decreasing employment conditions, on welfare and in detention centres continue to bear the brunt of cruel and damaging deprivation of their rightful qualities of life.

  49. Denis Bright in Brisbane

    As in Samuel Beckett play, everyone is waiting for Malcolm Turnbull as the latter day Godot: A great interpretation of the unknown, Kaye!

  50. pappinbarafox

    Gangey59 shades of Wilson Tuckey

  51. Malcolm

    I’ve just come back to see what you guys are up to and ….low and behold….its the same group of old hacks spitting venom, full of disdain, bitter and twisted no hopers….still jerking each other off longing for the good old days of Juliar, swanny et al….get a life you old twisted hacks and join in with optimistict progressive Australians…….get out of the sewer that you inhabit dwelling in your self pity ….. Vote COATITION and MALCOLM. Admit it….YOU LOVE MALCOLM. You ALP Green hacks have been shit kicked like an old white dog turd kicked into the wind and obliterated into dust. How does it feel guys….not good I presume. You are staring down the barrel of a loaded shotgun …..Shorten is the bullet and Malcolm is about to pull the trigger. We pity you old dried up hacks. …No offence guys…just trying to help develop you personally and mentally… as where you are right now is a shit of a place. Do you drink alot these days??? When was the last time you had a good laugh with friends, enjoyed life etc…..I guess a long time. Anyway, our smiles for life and the Coalition is enough to cover us both. Kind Regards. Malcolm.

  52. Matters Not

    Malcolm seems ‘nice’. Dumb as dog shit. But ‘nice’.

  53. Backyard Bob

    Dear Malcolm,

    “swanny” ought be written with a capital S, it being a proper noun ‘n’ all …

  54. Matters Not

    Backyard Bob, didn’t want to be too critical of ‘Malcolm’. Needless to say there’s a hilarious ‘eggcorn’.

    ‘low and behold’

    There’s a few recent others he might consider. ‘dusk off’, ‘all is set and done’, ‘new leash on life’, and ‘signal out’ .

    http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

    As for his command of the language and its conventions. Hilarious.

    AIMN where do you find them? Perhaps it’s an ‘inside’ job?

  55. corvus boreus

    Malcolm,
    From your pre-programmed diatribe, I doubt you even read the article, or more than skimmed the comments.
    You are have contributed nothing but bilious sledges (+ CAPSHOUTS..???), mixed with bizarre and inappropriate metaphors.
    Given the ‘quality’ of the content you offer and the obvious intent behind it, I dismiss your ‘Kind Regards’ with no offense taken.
    Ps, You do not load a shotgun with bullets, they will misfire,…you fup-ducking moron!

  56. Backyard Bob

    Matters Not,

    I guess Malcolm is just one of those gifts that keeps on giving. Mind you, I always thought that ought be “gift that keeps on being given”. But that’s just me.

  57. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    I hope ‘Malcolm’ is the desperate, disillusioned LNP leech we suspect who is trolling this site to peep in on our conversations. This is so s/he can report back to Maestro Malcolm Turnbull on what we think about his performance thus far and how we rate it.

    I’ll start the bidding! I rate Malcolm as a 5/10.

    Malcolm is Not totally hopeless like Rabid but very wanting in what true socio-economic reforms he is willing or able to deliver (considering the idiots on his team).

    (Mind you Malcolm, when Billy Shorten wakes up out of his fright, he’ll realise you’re just a bag of wind and he’ll start to show some balls to countermand your illusory policies with proper, community-focused ones that provide lasting and welcome community reforms!)

  58. Kaye Lee

    I would try to refute Malcolm’s argument…except he didn’t make one.

    More importantly, I am yet to hear the Malcolm that counts make an argument either. He made plenty in the past but I am hearing nothing of substance yet. It is up to us to help him and the country by voting out the dinosaurs who are holding him, and us, back.

  59. Wally

    “Vote COATITION and MALCOLM”

    Malcolm lovers could end up with much more than expected when the extreme right close ranks, like Abbott mark 2.

  60. DC

    After Turnbull just appointed Alan Finkel as the new Chief Scientist, Finkel made a press release that he wants to see Australia transition to renewable energy. At first I was hopeful as I thought he might have deliberately appointed this person to put pressure on the loony tunes show that dominate the LNP. But unfortunately it seems he has filled that seat with a long established pro nuclear mouthpiece. I hope I’m wrong about this. Finkel is talking with words like ‘renewable’ but also using the phrase ‘everything (including nuclear) is on the table. Assuming this is true and I do hope I’m wrong but this seems to be another delay tactic to ensure coal gets a few more good years before its inevitable demise. Nuclear has a lower return on energy than Wind and is not scaleable to an extent that modern renewable energy is becoming (not on a global scale anyway so its not a global solution, just a “me first” way to hide away from more permanent innovations. The reason is because, If all of the world decided to switch to nuclear, the economically recoverable suplis of uranium would deplete very fast, les than a decade and thats according to the industrie’s own site (world-nuclear.org), there are Current usage is about 66,000 t/yr and the world’s ‘5,902,500 t (5.9 Mt) of “reasonably assured” and “economically viable (assuming a spot price of 1.5 x its current value) which equates to enough to last for about 90 years at current consumprion rates whichonly represents only 11% of global current energy supply.

  61. DC

    Another thing about nuclear is that even if Turnbull was able to get legislation through parliament (goodluck getting the greens support) let alone agreeing on locations that provide access to large volumes of water without upseting beachside residents. But even if there were no other unexpected delays, we would probably not see one kW of nuclear power before 2025 due to the long process of planning and building them, coupled with the fact that Australia has zero expertise in the area.

    Long before any nuclear powerplant could ever be completed, it would become uneconomical due to the rapidly delining costs and increasing energy returns on distributed power and storage.

  62. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    DC,

    you have renewed my faith in the arguments against that effing nuclear-is-good-argument.

    You obviously know your stuff so keep expounding them in simple lay-person lingo that humble people like me understand, so we can share them widely to others in the expectation of proper and effective energy policies from the Turnbull LNP government and subsequent governments.

  63. DC

    Thanks Jennifer, I did a lot of research on this a few years ago and am very interested, but my opinions may not always be correct. I do try to be careful of where I get my sourses though and these figures came from the nuclear industry so I would assume these limitations would be very real, afterall, you’d think they would the ones wanting to paint a pretty picture about how viable nuclear future is. I kind of got a little off track, I meant to talk about how after Alan Finkel made his press release today saying he wants Australia to ultimately be off all fossil fuels, the shiny new Turnbull quickly transmorphed back into Diet Tony Abbott by jumping in and reminding the audience his opinion (dressed up as fact) that coal had a big future for a very long time to come. He even repeated that line twice and wanked on about how coal is ‘necessary’ in order to help save the world’s poor!

  64. Malcolm

    You guys are fu…..cking pathetic! What a bunch of losers. Keep Shorten in and hope like hell – Well you know that you are all fu…cked now due to fantastic Kevy Rudd and his changes….your stuck with pieman and Liberals couldnt be happier…….”Happy day are here again…da da da da da”

  65. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    There, there Malcolm,

    take a bex and have a nice lie down.

  66. corvus boreus

    Malcolm,
    You sound even more testerically and incoherently angry and spiteful than the last time you posted. Are you drunk(er)?

  67. Roswell

    I’d say that we have an idiot in our midst.

  68. DC

    Malcolm, the grown ups were actually discussing something a bit bigger than Lib/Lab, Left/Right

  69. Wally

    I think Malcolm lives in Sydney, just down the road from Neil.

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