Triumph over Dutton-style politics: A retrospective look

Of course, any election will have various reasons for why a particular…

Imperial Fruit: Bananas, Costs and Climate Change

The curved course of the ubiquitous banana has often been the peel…

The problems with a principled stand

In the past couple of weeks, the conservative parties have retained government…

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…

«
»
Facebook

Is Tony Abbott committed to the environment?

If Tony Abbott or his political party claim they are 100% committed to the environment then I would suggest that is a big fat lie. Here is an example of Tony Abbott’s commitment:

The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott’s pitch to major polluters reached new heights today. Addressing a conference in Brisbane, Mr Abbott said he would out-source the protection of the environment and impacted communities to the States and Territories eager to fast track massive new industrial developments. This would effectively remove environmental safeguards and destroy the cornerstone of community protection from the impacts of such projects.

The same month he made the above speech he also revealed that he actually harbours a true love for the environment and how he acquired this new age, alpha masculinity:

Ever since I was old enough to understand the term, I have regarded myself as a conservationist.

As a child, I used to play in the gullies and creeks surrounding the Lane Cove National Park. I wasn’t as careful then as now about protecting fauna, such as the red-bellied black snake, but I loved the bush for its potential for adventure and sense of solitude.

In the valley behind our house, I first learnt to sleep under the stars. On canoeing trips, I learnt to read a map. On student bush walks, I developed a sense of direction.

Reading a map on a river. In a canoe! Wow. What a life changing moment that must have been. It clearly made him an expert in the field on the environment. Take these pearls of wisdom, most likely acquired from sleeping under the stars:

  • Climate change is a relatively new political issue, but it’s been happening since the earth’s beginning. The extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been associated with climate change.
  • These so-called nasty big polluters are the people that keep the lights on. I mean, let’s not forget how essential these people are to the business of daily life.
  • I am, as you know, hugely unconvinced by the so-called settled science on climate change. […] I mean, I just think that the science is highly contentious, to say the least.
  • The climate has changed over the eons and we know from history, at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now. And then during what they called the Dark Ages it was colder. Then there was the medieval warm period.

He no longer kills red-bellied black snakes and despises people who keep lights on. No wonder people such as Andrew Bolt rate him more credible than most of the world’s scientists. Scientists spend at least three years studying at university to become knowledgeable in their field. Tony Abbott reads maps. While floating down a river. How could you doubt him? How could you doubt a person who has a sense of direction because he walked in the bush yet needs a map to paddle a canoe?

On a serious note, The Guardian UK, in its recent article “Australian climate outlook remains bleak with Tony Abbott out for revenge” have provided us with a better understanding of Abbott’s feeling for the environment:

In Australia, decades of hard-fought conservation gains are at risk of being wiped out after 14 September. That’s when the incumbent Labor government faces oblivion at the federal election, at the hands of the conservative Liberal Party.

For environment groups and climate campaigners, things have never looked bleaker.

This is despite the introduction of a carbon price, billions of dollars for clean energy projects, a landmark extension of marine national parks, and recent news that carbon emissions from the world’s largest per- capita emitter have actually reduced.

Unfortunately, conservation and climate change have not been a national priority since the controversial introduction of the carbon price. In Australia, the Labor minority government, supported by the Greens, passed historic carbon-pricing legislation that charged polluters for their emissions.

At that time, the five or so largest environment groups, supported by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, ran a public awareness campaign – “Say Yes” – to raise support for the carbon price.

Since then, the conservative opposition, led by climate change denying Tony Abbott and supported by extreme elements in the Murdoch-owned press, has waged a relentless campaign against the carbon price.

The fear is that Abbott’s climate denialism, coupled with a desire to get even with groups who opposed him, will see environment groups targeted.

I think we’ve got some worries ahead of us. We could be handing the future of our environment over to a man who needs a map to paddle a canoe.

 

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

Donate Button

22 comments

Login here Register here
  1. Ricky (Tory Torcher)

    This guy will say literally anything, if he has his way the creek will be as full of shit as he is and we won’t have a paddle… Great read Migs. Work fore the dole green army for all those jobless public servants.

  2. Truth Seeker

    Migs, nice one 😀 and a man who needs a map to paddle a canoe, has real cred :shock 😀

    Cheers 😆

  3. LOVO

    400ppm + Methane Hydrate plumes + Summer Melt Season+ Tony Abbortt as PM (shivers) = LOVO going into survivalist mode 🙁 ….. no, really….. 🙁 ..this election is that serious… 🙁

  4. Miglo

    The man is an idiot of the highest magnitude. Like I’ve previously said, he raises the bar of stupidity.

  5. Truth Seeker

    Migs, 😆

    Cheers 😀

    BTW, latest count 1017 and counting 😀

  6. Miglo

    Great news, TS, and well earned. 🙂

  7. Truth Seeker

    Migs, thanks mate, couldn’t have done it without your help 😀

    I should go to bed, but I keep having to check to see where it’s up to 😯

    Cheers 😀

  8. silkworm

    He gained his sense of direction from bush walking? He seems to be confusing the literal meaning of the word “direction,” as in “the cardinal directions,” with its metaphorical meaning, as in “life direction” or “moral compass.” This is either very clever or very confused.

  9. mikisdad

    Committed? – He ought to be.

  10. Dirk Rossey

    how you guys can time and again use so many words to say absolutely nothing baffles me

    Another useless article not worth the canvas it’s written on….

    Go apply for one of these ‘billion dollar’ projects, because this wasteful labor government is still handing them out if you promise to vote for them.

  11. kate ahearne

    Lovely, Miglio.

    Wonderful finale – ‘I think we’ve got some worries ahead of us. We could be handing the future of our environment over to a man who needs a map to paddle a canoe.’

    I’ve become quite obsessed with the idea of framing questions for Tony Abbott. We’re going to have to get good at this in the run-up to the election. So, here’s one for all of us, with a couple of follow-ups. – ‘Do you really believe that our pollution of the planet could not possibly be having anything to do with climate change?’ ‘Do you really believe that we can keep on trashing our planet without any repercussions?’ Do you really believe that climate change is happening without any input from us?’ Do you really believe that all that poisonous trash is having no effect on our planet, and that the climate change we are now experiencing, is due to something else? ‘Do you really believe that we are not experiencing climate change?’

    Love your work.

  12. david

    You’re a day late, Dirk.

  13. uknowispeaksense

    I have a full examination of every sitting member from both houses and their position on the science underpinning climate change.

  14. patsy

    WOW…you sure have me in the group……..Tony abbott is vile……and a great role model for idiots……his daughters called him a DAG…..no true words have ever been said about a man who wants to lead our now wonderful country…..may god help us.

  15. Miglo

    Dirk, take a jump.

  16. Möbius Ecko

    You only need look at Queensland and what Newman is doing there to destroy the environment, and now with plans to open up pristine northern wilderness to large scale unfettered development, to have an inkling of what Abbott will do to destroy the little that’s left in this country.

  17. mikisdad

    @Dirk

    How anyone of even moderate intellect and caring for others can support the election of an apparently narrow-minded, prejudiced and ignorant right-wing ideologue who demonstrates little awareness, let alone understanding, of the major issues facing our World or those of the average Australian citizen, used to baffle me. It no longer does so because I’ve realised and had to accept that selfishness, greed and ignorance are rampant in our society and therefore many will respond to the populist drivel which was so successful for our worst ever Prime Minister, John Howard, whose policies and attitudes Tony Abbott is seeking to reinstate.

    Given that you demonstrate an inability to write even 50 words of sense, let alone write them with anything approaching grammatical cohesion, I am at all surprised that you are baffled and I sympathise because you must be baffled by everything. However, at least, if the old adage is true, you must be happy for isn’t it said that: “ignorance is bliss”?

  18. Min

    Just as an observation..note how Abbott’s examples pertaining to the environment are all about ME, ME, ME.. his sleeping under the stars, his learning to read a map, his sense of direction. And this is what Abbott does not comprehend and I doubt that he ever will comprehend this fact, that isn’t not all about ME, ME, ME it’s doing what is right for one’s society, one’s community and one’s nation. I doubt that Abbott has it in him, the ability to think outside of one’s self.

  19. Min

    I have absolutely no doubt as per the article in the UK Guardian that Abbott will run a campaign of retribution once elected..the same as Howard. But let’s just say that Abbott minus Howard’s sneaky, underhanded, lying rodent finesse, that Abbott will be even more heavy handed than Howard ever was.

    I wonder who will be on Abbott’s hit list?

  20. Callie Ge

    Isnt it interesting that the MSM overseas can see Tony Abbott for what he really is but the MSM here Controlled by Rupert Murdoch are trying to convince us that he is the second coming …………………….of Howard.I have been saying for ages that this Arrogant man sees himself as a benevolent dictator and his main policy for the LNP is to undo all the good that the ALP under Julia Gillard; has done. The man is like bejelke -petersen crazy as a cut snake.

  21. Sandra Searle (@SandraSearle)

    Here here & Amen to all of the comments, except of course Dirk. What a closed mind moron, a bit like TA actually.

  22. Pingback: It’s official: Tony Abbott is an idiot! | Café Whispers

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