Friday 18 July 2014

Climate change is irrelevant - » The Australian Independent Media Network

Climate change is irrelevant - » The Australian Independent Media Network



Climate change is irrelevant














In the argument for investment in renewable energy in Australia, the existence, or non-existence of climate change is irrelevant, writes Warwick O’Neill.




Like most semi-intelligent Australians I accept that all the
scientific evidence provides near definitive proof that things aren’t
looking real bright for our future generations, unless we invest in
renewal energy technologies now. But us semi-intelligent Australians are
no longer the ones who need convincing, are we?



Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and the rest of this chamber of horrors
masquerading as a Government are the ones who need convincing. But while
I think that deep down the majority of them probably do believe the
science, they all believe much more in the money flowing into Liberal
Party coffers from the likes of Gina, Rupert, and other esteemed members
of the IPA. So do we continue doing things the way that we have been
ever since these people stole the election, i.e. pleading to their
conscience and their desire to leave a clean and sustainable future for
our grand kids? Like that’s ever going to work.



As they say, the epitome of stupidity is to continue doing the same
thing, in the same way and expecting a different result. We need to stop
trying to bash down the front door. We need to stop appealing to their
conscience and instead use their enormous egos and greed against them.
Let’s stop trying to convince them that climate change is real, and
start talking about the only things they care about; economics and
legacy.



These people may be able to stick their head in the sand and deny
climate change, but there are two unmistakable and unarguable truths
which no amount of sand can cover up.



First undeniable truth – our mining resources will run out
eventually. Whether it’s in ten years, fifty years or one hundred years,
unless their God can miraculously replenish our stocks, we will run
out. This will leave Australia with very little to trade and the rest of
the world will be quite happy to say “thank you for your contribution
to our future” while they wave us goodbye.



Even a government which passes the one collective brain cell around
to whoever needs it most can see that this will be an economic disaster.
How to avoid it though? By finding another source of income, something
else which we can sell to an eager world. It would be hard to argue that
Australia, due to its geography, isn’t ideally placed to take advantage
of renewable energy production. Heavy investment in this industry could
potentially reap enormous financial benefits to Australia. Yes, I know
it would buck the trend to have a government in Australia that actually
invests in assets rather than selling them off, but humour me.



We all know that solar is a viable source of energy. If solar panels
the size of an average house roof can provide sufficient power to run
that house, imagine the power output of a 1000 acre solar panel. A few
of these strategically positioned and we go a long way towards providing
enough power to keep this country ‘rocking and rolling’. Government
investment in training could help alleviate the job losses from the
mining sector, and these new solar areas could be the future version of
today’s “mining towns”.



The Horizontal Waterfalls (source: tripadviser.com.au)
The Horizontal Waterfalls (source: tripadviser.com.au)

Our other advantage is our fifty odd thousand kilometres of
coastline. Each inch of this coastline is subject to the one of the
truly dependable and predictable sources of energy on this planet –
tides. Tidal energy doesn’t dissipate under an overcast sky or when the
wind stops blowing. Some areas, such as the “Horizontal Waterfalls” near
Broome, have such huge tidal flows that you could imagine, with the
right technology in place, potentially provide enough electricity
generation to supply the entire top end. And this happens twice a day,
every day. But is going largely untapped due to lack of investment.



If any Government properly invested in the research and development
and then implemented these technologies, then solar and tidal power
could see Australia in a position to provide clean energy at least to
the South East Asian region. Our scientists (should we have any left)
could no doubt devise efficient and environmentally friendly ways of
harnessing this power. The sale of the electricity produced, combined
with the manufacture and export of our intellectual property could bring
billions of overseas dollars into our economy, easily paying off the
initial investment and then adding pure profit well into the future.



The second undeniable truth is that no matter how strenuously Tony
Abbott fights against renewal energy, most of the rest of the world,
even China, is already making great strides in establishing their own
sustainable energy industries. This can mean only one thing for the
Australian coal industry – a decrease in the price of coal. The less
demand there is, the less it is worth. Economics 1 0 1. So long before
coal resources run out, they’re going to be worthless anyway. Failure to
start investing now will only mean that the rest of the world will be
so much further in front of us when the time comes and we have no other
option.



That takes care of the economic angle of attack; now let’s stroke
their egos by dangling the carrot of legacy in front of them. Two things
any politician who strives for the top echelons of government have in
common is a massive ego and a desire to be remembered as one of the
giants in history.



Point out to Tony Abbott that he could go down in the annuls of
history as the visionary who set up Australia’s economic position in the
world for centuries to come, and his ego is sure to be soothed.
Actually scrap that. As the “suppository of knowledge” he’d probably
think that he’ll be going down in the annals of history as the
intellectual giant who scrapped the ‘carbon tax’. Sharp as a marble, our
Tony.



But pitch the legacy idea to whoever will be the leader of the LNP
once they rid themselves of Tony, and I’m sure they’ll show some
interest. Maybe the thought of a gilded statue out the front of
Parliament House, honouring their greatness would be enough to overcome
the natural desire of most pollies to only look as far ahead as the next
election.



Take the whole climate change debate out of the renewable energy
argument, and all they are left arguing against is a stronger future
economy and their place in history. We could very well get what we
wanted in the first place, which is investment in sustainable energy and
a brighter, cleaner future. Any military strategist will tell you, if
your initial frontal assault fails, change your plan and take them in
the flank, where they least expect it.



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Out of his depth Abbott sinks Australia further into the merde

Out of his depth Abbott sinks Australia further into the merde



Out of his depth Abbott sinks Australia further into the merde







(cartoons by John Graham / johngraham.alphalink.com.au)


Those dismayed at the many humiliations Tony Abbott has brought upon Australia have had another appalling week. Alan Austin reports from France.



PM Abbott: Not waving, drowning



‘Australia abolishes carbon tax. Step backwards?’




That’s the intro to Thursday’s article in Taiwan’s Taipei Times.



It continues:



‘Tony Abbott praised the scrapping of a "useless, destructive
tax," while critics called it an embarrassment that would make Australia
a global pariah.’





Strong words. But if Australia was not already a global pariah before this week, it is now.



Last week’s report at IA on worldwide negative news bulletins on Abbott’s performance quoted 30 articles in 16 countries. Not too bad.



To these can now be added Taiwan, Sweden, Singapore and Japan. That’s 20. Not good.



Then must be added India, Switzerland, China, Pakistan, Qatar,
Norway, Macedonia, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Kuwait. That makes an even 30
countries all running highly damaging news stories about Australia. And,
no doubt, there are more.




Issues include Abbott’s attacks on the poor in the May budget, the unravelling of relations with Indonesia and his multiple humiliations abroad.



Two issues this week have dismayed the watching world even further.



Switzerland daily gazette Tages-Anzeiger reported the carbon tax repeal, noting Australia is the first country in the world to abandon climate control measures:



‘The controls were directed at the 350 biggest polluters in the country. The Conservatives triumph.’






Norway’s Aftenposten focussed on the environmental movement’s rage against the decision – ‘raser mot vedtaket’.



It noted Australia is among the world’s highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita, but its prime minister



‘... has repeatedly denied that climate change is the result of human activities.’




SvD Näringsliv in neighbouring Sweden ran a similar item:



The decision is a success for the Australian government, but also a giant step backwards ['jättekliv bakåt'] for climate change.




France’s Le Vif also reported objections of environmentalists worldwide.



It quoted president of Britain’s committee on climate change, Lord Deben:



‘Tony Abbott is recklessly endangering the future of the planet.’




EurActiv in France headed its report:



'L’UE déplore l’abandon de la taxe carbone en Australie [The European Union deplores Australia axeing the carbon tax].'




It quoted Dane Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s Commissioner for Climate Action:



"The EU regrets Australia withdrawing its carbon tax mechanism
just as initiatives to put a price on carbon are emerging elsewhere in
the world."







In the UK The Telegraph reported that Abbott’s decision was



‘... despite warnings by scientists that he was ignoring the
evidence on climate change’ and was therefore pursuing a ‘perfect storm
of stupidity.'





Germany’s Die Freie Welt claimed that after Abbott last year closed the Climate Commission, this move will further the



‘... deterioration of relations between Australia and countries committed to influencing climate change.'




In Qatar, Al Jazeera subtitled its report:



‘Senate votes to end tax on nation's worst greenhouse gas polluters in move Greens call an appalling day for Australia.’




From the United States, the influential UPI agency led with:



‘Thursday's vote by the Australian Senate to repeal a carbon tax
is a "historic act of irresponsibility," the director of a top climate
advocacy group said.’







The other cause of humiliation for Australia this week was Abbott rewriting World War II history by praising Japanese soldiers for their



"... skill and sense of honour."




Several Chinese news outlets reported Abbott’s ‘senselessness’ with varying degrees of dismay.



China.org.cn:



‘Abbott's admiration of Japanese war skills insensible to victims’.




Guangming Online:



‘Australian prime minister's praise of Japanese troops are harshly criticized’.




The Global Times:



‘Australian FM’s China stance senseless’.




The Straits Times in Singapore announced:



‘China blasts Australia over Abbott’s World War II comments’.




 
Buy the original John Graham cartoon at the IA online store.
TST quoted Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei claiming that, if reports of Abbott’s remarks were true,



“... no one with a conscience could agree with them."




Kuwait’s KUNA headed its report:



‘China criticizes Australian FM [foreign minister] for Japanese aggression’.




It quoted China’s Xinhua News Agency:



‘Japanese fascist invaders brought profound suffering to people
in a number of countries, including Australia, during World War II.
Their aggression was extremely brutal.’





In India, ZeeNews also highlighted China’s contempt for Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop, quoting China’s Global Times [IA emphasis]:



'Bishop's verbal provocation made her look more like one of the often pointless 'angry youths' found in the Chinese cyber sphere than a diplomat ... The Chinese-language editorial was in places more strongly worded, referring to Bishop as an “idiot”. She was already on the receiving end of a tongue-lashing from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
when she visited Beijing in December ... after Canberra criticised
China's declaration of an air defence zone in the East China Sea.'





India’s Usum headed its report:



‘Tony Abbott cops it for praising Japan WWII skills’.




Bahrain’s Daily Tribune opened a similar story with:



‘China yesterday slammed a remark by Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott praising Japanese military personnel during World War II,
while state-run media said Australia was once “roamed by rascals”.’





A thoughtful piece in Indonesia’s Jakarta Globe was headed:



‘As Beijing can shift its orders elsewhere, going hard on China isn’t easy for Australia’.




The analysis suggested Abbott:



‘... is grasping for a harder line on China and not doing it very
well ... Last week, though, he went off the diplomatic rails ...’







Even Japanese publications criticised Abbott's, with The Diplomat heading its item:



‘Abbott’s WWII comments draw China’s ire’.




It quoted Chinese news outlet Xinhua’s ‘scathing attack on Abbott’ following the speech:



‘By making such a comment, Abbott showed how insensible he is
towards people in China and other countries who had suffered greatly as a
result of the ‘advanced’ war skills of Japanese troops and their sense
of honor during their aggression. It also makes people wonder how far
Australia under his leadership would go to support Japan.’





A similar report featured in Pakistan’s Dunya News.



In Macedonia, the heading in Bukvar.mk’s brief report was simply:



They [Japanese troops] were bloody cannibals’.




It continued:



‘World War 2 veterans and the RSL are angry and disappointed over Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s praise for Japan’s war record.’




In the UK, The Independent put it bluntly up front:



‘Tony Abbott embarrasses Australia by praising Japanese WWII
military, "getting on the sake" and posing for "crotch-shot" photo
opportunity.'







The Times led with:



‘China fury as Abbott hails skill of Japan’s wartime troops’.




Britain’s Daily Mail could not resist pointing to Abbott’s hung-over performance on morning TV:



‘Was the PM dusty? Tony Abbott cops a ribbing over whether he had too much Sake with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’.




The Standard in Hong Kong amplified the criticism in China’s press with an item titled:



‘Chinese paper slams Australia over Abe visit’.




And therein lies Australia’s problem.



The blunders are the work of an inept government led by a stumblebum
PM, so clearly out of his depth in foreign affairs, he is an
international joke.




But it is the nation the world is really laughing at.



You can follow Alan Austin on Twitter @AlanTheAmazing.



Creative Commons Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

Laggards or Leaders - » The Australian Independent Media Network

Laggards or Leaders - » The Australian Independent Media Network



Laggards or Leaders














While Joe Hockey labels Australians as “lifters or leaners”,
governments are similarly judged as “laggards or leaders”.  In one fell
swoop this government has taken us from being a world leader to a
despised laggard.



You could be forgiven for not knowing there was a climate change
conference in Bonn in June.  In fact, I am not even sure if we actually
sent anyone.  The last I heard, the delegates were standing around at
Sydney airport wondering what to do because the PM’s plane had flown off
to France full of photographers and businessmen, relegating the
delegates to catch commercial flights, but the PM’s office, who control
such things, had neglected to give approval for their expenses.



Since I had heard no reports of the conference I looked for myself.  This was the first story I came across.


Australia awarded Fossil of the Day at UN Climate Talks for Trying to Reconvene Flat Earth Society


June 10 2014, Bonn – Germany: CAN bestows the first
Fossil Award of the Bonn UNFCCC negotiation session to Australia in
recognition of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s stupendously brazen denial
of the catastrophic risks posed by climate change in his effort to form
an alliance of “like minded” countries opposed to action on climate
change, already dubbed by some as a new “flat earth society.”



News accounts report that the Minister has enjoined Canada in his new
coalition and is reaching out to other countries including the UK and
India “aiming to dismantle global moves to introduce carbon pricing.”



CAN salutes the Abbott’s commitment and consistency in his willful
blindness to the catastrophic economic costs incurred by climate change.



He has also recently announced his intention to keep climate change
out of the upcoming G20 talks hosted by Australia arguing that  climate
change is inappropriate because such talks are primarily about
economics.



Prime Minister Abbott must have missed the IPCC memo which spells out that climate change is the economic problem facing our age – it’s already costing us, but it doesn’t cost the earth to save the world.


He is clearly looking for recognition of his visionary approach to
climate change, and CAN is proud to be among the first to step out and
congratulate his dedication to the fossilized past.  [In case you were
wondering – no, this isn't a joke.  Abbott has really done this. 
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.]”

This came on the heels of the report from the conference in Warsaw in November last year.


November 22, 2013


This year’s Colossal Fossil goes to Australia. The new Australian
Government has won its first major international award – the Colossal
Fossil. The delegation came here with legislation in its back pocket to
repeal the carbon price, failed to take independent advice to increase
its carbon pollution reduction target and has been blocking progress in
the loss and damage negotiations. Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!

Some people have described our new Senators as a “breath of fresh
air”.  What I see is ill-informed naïvity.  Clive Palmer has somehow
convinced these “ordinary people” that Australia will be better off
without a carbon price and a mining tax.  Nice going Clive.



Tony Abbott has managed to do the same, telling us that our cost of
living will go down, jobs will be created, and investment money will
flow….but don’t bet the house on it.



This unholy alliance has sent Australia backwards but they will not
prevail.  Their actions will be increasingly condemned as the world
forces them to take action on the greatest challenge our planet has ever
faced.



Abbott will face enormous pressure at the G20 summit later this year,
and at the climate change talks in Paris next year, despite his efforts
to remove discussion from the agenda.  Under pressure from Obama, in a
typically immature approach to control the language, Abbott agreed
to discuss “energy efficiency”.



A recent poll by the Lowy Institute showed that after six years of
declining public concern about climate change, the trend had reversed
with 45 per cent of people saying it is a “serious and pressing
problem”.



In the meantime, it is worth remembering that smart, decent people
are waiting for this temporary nightmare to pass and have viable plans
for the direction our future must take.



In July 2012, Beyond Zero Emissions produced a document called “Laggard to Leader – How Australia Can Lead the World to Zero Carbon Prosperity”.  The main thrust of the study is:


  • Australia must stop using the promise of a global treaty that won’t
    eventuate to duck responsibility for its ballooning coal and gas
    exports.
  • A moratorium on coal and gas expansion followed by a phasedown will
    drive a massive increase in global renewable energy investment.
  • Australia can lead the world to cheap, abundant renewable energy by
    deploying off-the-shelf, zero carbon technology that will grow
    Australia’s prosperity.

The International Energy Agency warned in 2012, “the door to a 2°C
trajectory is about to close”.  To keep the door open, global emissions
must peak and begin to decline by 2020 at the absolute latest and then
keep declining to zero by between 2040 and 2050. We are in “the critical
decade”.  Decisions we make today will largely determine the state of
the climate system within which all subsequent generations must live.



The world’s nations gathered in Durban in late 2011 to continue
long-standing negotiations towards a comprehensive international treaty
to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The best they could agree was that they
would aim to negotiate by 2015 an agreement requiring some countries to
start reducing emissions beginning in 2020. These negotiations cannot
be relied upon to secure the emissions cuts that are required. “It is
clear”, argue the editors of the world’s preeminent scientific journal,
Nature, “that the science of climate change and the politics of climate
change … now inhabit parallel worlds”.



Nowhere is this more apparent than in Australia where the Federal
Government and its State Government counterparts are aggressively
supporting a massive programme of investment in new mines, wells, pipes
and ports. These projects will see Australia export a staggering amount
of highly emissions-intensive coal and gas during — and well beyond —
the critical decade.



Australia is already the world’s largest coal exporter, responsible
for more than a quarter of the world’s traded coal, and is the fastest
growing exporter of liquefied natural gas. The emissions embodied in
Australia’s fossil fuel exports already total much more than our
“domestic” emissions. Based on data accumulated by Australian Government
agencies, Australia’s combined coal and gas exports are projected to
more than double between now and 2030.



To allow this to occur would be catastrophic for global efforts to
avoid dangerous climate change: it would mean Australia would be causing
more than 1 in every 10 tonnes of the greenhouse gas emissions that can
be emitted into the atmosphere in 2030 consistent with a 2°C warming
trajectory.



Australia is the steward of its natural resources. They belong to all
Australians and we can choose what to do with them. When our exports of
coal and gas are burned, the carbon dioxide released into the
atmosphere is the product of these choices. The fact that these
emissions are not counted in Australia’s “carbon accounts” under UN
carbon accounting rules has previously been used as an excuse for us to
ignore their consequences.



But these rules are based on the idea that all countries will have
emissions reduction targets, the achievement of which will “add up” to
the global cuts necessary to stay within the 2°C limit. With the UN
negotiations deadlocked and no foreseeable prospect of such an
international regime emerging in the necessary timeframe, this excuse is
not acceptable.



Hoping, against all probability, that the negotiations will reach a
breakthrough just in time, while at the same time making the problem
they are trying to solve significantly worse is a dangerous,
counterintuitive and counterproductive approach for Australia to take.



It is well beyond time to approach the global challenge of preserving
a safe climate in a very different way. It is time to put leadership
towards zero carbon prosperity at the heart of our response.



The logic of “Cooperative Decarbonisation” is simple. Each country
must phase down to zero or very near zero the greenhouse gas emissions
associated with every economic and social process over which it has
control or influence.  Instead of drawing lines at national borders,
this approach recognises that, in a globalised economy, countries have
shared responsibility for many of the emissions that occur in any one
place. As such, countries should use every lever they have to eliminate
those emissions within their “sphere of influence”, including the fossil
fuels they export and the goods they import.



Clearly, international cooperation will be required — particularly to
ensure that the goals of sustainable economic development are achieved
and that wealthier countries assist low income countries to make this
essential transition. But instead of trying to do it all in one “grand
bargain” as they are today, countries should work in smaller groups,
focusing their efforts on the individual sectors and processes that
cause emissions — working to leave fossil fuels in the ground, preserve
the world’s forests and make renewable energy affordable for all.



Australia, one of the world’s wealthiest nations, is one of only a
small handful of countries that can lead this process. The main reason
for this is simple: our sphere of influence over global emissions is
immense. Our high domestic emissions make us an important player, on par
with nations like France, Spain and South Korea. But it is our
ballooning coal and gas exports that make us a truly critical influence
on global emissions.



We can use this position to focus the attention of world leaders on
the most important, yet least discussed part of the climate problem: the
fact that only one eighth of the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves
can safely be burned. Australia can help make that which is currently
“unthinkable” — a global fossil fuel phase out — a reality.



We need an Australian moratorium on new fossil fuel developments: a
bold move from the world’s largest coal exporter that can serve as the
centrepiece for a wider call to action. Such a move would maintain the
current global price of coal and stop it from falling by an expected 30%
this decade. It would be one of the few conceivable ways that any
single country could jolt world leaders into action, creating the
economic and political momentum to commence immediate global discussion
on the best and fairest means to phase-out fossil fuels.



Thankfully, Australia’s global power does not arise only from our
ownership of the resources that are fuelling the problem. As the
beneficiary of world class solar and wind resources, we also hold the
key to the most important solutions.



Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy are essential to
decarbonising the world’s energy system. Thanks largely to the targeted
investments made by Germany and other European countries when these
technologies were more expensive, they have sailed down the “cost curve”
and are now price-competitive with fossil fuel energy in many markets.
Germany’s installation of almost 30GW of solar PV brought PV prices down
by an incredible 65% over the past six years.



The other crucial technology is concentrating solar thermal (CST)
with storage. This technology, which is operating today in other
countries, produces 24 hour energy from the power of the sun. The Zero
Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan showed that powering the
Australian economy using predominantly CST is technically and
economically achievable, starting now, in ten years. The greatest gift
that sunny Australia could give to the world is to repeat for CST what
cloudy Germany did for solar PV: through smart policies and targeted
investments, enable the deployment across Australia of enough CST to
make this game-changing technology cost-competitive with fossil fuels
everywhere.



Cheap renewable energy will solve some of the most challenging
problems facing humankind this century — from climate change, to oil
scarcity, to energy poverty — and allow us to build a global economy on
foundations as reliable as the rising sun.



Australia has the power to make it happen.  It is up to us to insist that it does.


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Time to go back to the polls? News Corp is not happy with Abbott

Time to go back to the polls? News Corp is not happy with Abbott





Time to go back to the polls? News Corp is not happy with Abbott






AAP/Lukas Coch



The Abbott government was under considerable pressure to have the
carbon tax repealed this week – and not just for political point
scoring. Wholesale electricity providers had already priced in the repeal.




However, dealing with the budget crisis in the Senate is looking like
it will overshadow the government’s celebrations over the repeal. The
sheer volume of budget-related business will create an inertia that will
impede progress on achieving the projected billions of savings from the
May budget.




So, the repeal of a bill that guarantees real-world budget revenue –
an emissions trading scheme (ETS), an idea which was first floated by John Howard in 1997 – will go down in Australian political history as one of its most supercilious jokes.




But to reflect on the fact that Australia has suffered the
irreversible embarrassment of being the only nation on earth to be
dismantling an ETS, it is worth looking at the way News Corp attempted
to use polls to speed up the repeal.




During last year’s federal election, polls were decisive
in generating momentum for the Coalition, and News Corp drew on its
in-house polling company to back up its editorialising in favour of the
Coalition. At the time, News Corp was criticised by the ABC and Fairfax
for being biased in its reportage of the election. These were claims
that were vindicated by Tony Abbott himself on Tuesday in what was a
bizarre speech he gave at the 50th anniversary celebration of The
Australian.




In his speech,
Abbott made the astonishing claim that The Australian helped Howard win
the 1996 election. He stopped short of claiming the same for his own
election victory, but it is difficult to assess what is the most
frightening aspect of this claim:




  • That it describes how elections really are conducted in Australia;
  • That it suggests Australian politics is captured by minority interests;
  • That a sitting prime minister declared it in a public forum; or
  • That a Liberal prime minister apparently does not see any ethical
    problem or contradiction with power-broking media concentration in
    multi-party states where otherwise he is promoting free-market
    competition at every turn.
Whichever implications of Abbott’s claim one draws, it is clear that
he really does believe News Corp to be central to electoral outcomes in
Australia.




But to be fair to Abbott, he himself is vindicated
by the confessions of Chris Mitchell, The Australian’s editor since
2002, about the campaigning journalism he has overseen. He is
unapologetic in admitting that the newspaper, which has a very poor
circulation but is influential in Canberra, is completely partisan at
elections. However, both he and Abbott are quick to point out the
support for Kevin Rudd in 2007.




Mitchell is also very open about acknowledging that there is a campaign against Clive Palmer
at the moment at The Australian. Hedley Thomas has been commissioned to
do this, and his attack on Palmer’s alleged abusive language has all
the hallmarks of the Lily Fontana make-up controversy with Rudd last year.




But the major weapon that News Corp uses is not the way it goes after
individual characters like Palmer, but after the “manufactured
majority” with its polling companies.




Therefore, in the aftermath of the embarrassing collapse of the carbon tax repeal in the Senate last week, Newspoll and The Australian came to the rescue to produce some figures to put the carbon tax repeal on a populist pedestal. The message was to give the people what they want, Clive – and you’ll be a hero.



The results published from the Newspoll
suggested that 53% of Australians wanted the repeal and 35% were
opposed. It also broke this down to Coalition voters, 85% of whom wanted
repeal. It was explained to a sample of 1207 voters that Palmer United
Party (PUP) had “blocked the removal of the carbon tax in the Senate”
and were given the choice whether PUP should “continue to block the
removal of the carbon tax” or “allow the carbon tax to be removed
immediately”.




But, as usual, the in-house Newspoll’s methodology is imprecise, and
we only have anecdotes about how independent and representative its
extremely small samples are. A much larger sample by ReachTEL,
surveyed just before the May budget, revealed that 52.5% of the sample
supported the tax on carbon rather than a deficit levy of 34%. This Poll
was not reported in Newscorp papers.




All kinds of doubt have been raised about Newspoll polling. A Newspoll employee revealed last year on Reddit
that the wording of poll questions conducted for The Australian have to
be read out verbatim to the interviewees, and that surveys are limited
to those with a landline.




While efforts are made to ensure that age demographics are
representative samples, the quotas are initially filled by over-60 age
groups who are more likely to be home, as the polling completely cuts
out households without landlines.




Former Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis
has satirised this situation by drawing on another Newspoll employee’s
account of his company only managing to reach thousands of 65-year olds
after lunch on a Saturday.




Nevertheless, the Daily Telegraph managed to transform the views of so many landline-tethered seniors into the headline:



PUP rolls over on carbon tax bill: Labor’s hated green levy to finally be axed
But will these polls influence the PUP? Palmer himself is on record as questioning any polling coming out of the News stable:



Of course the polls are rigged: Rupert Murdoch owns
Newspoll and Galaxy Research, and the media set the agenda and try to
determine the result of an election before it is held.
Palmer’s presidential-style address on an ETS a few weeks ago seems
to have lost conviction. PUP are still backing all the renewable
policies, but will need Labor to step up to get an ETS on the agenda,
which it has.




But Palmer knows that voters are more upset by the budget – it is
difficult to ‘rig’ a street march – than by repealing a tax that pays
down the deficit without any measurable pain, compared to the palpable
pain that is being wrought by the multiple taxes and cuts in the budget.




Palmer also knows that the government is in real trouble over the
budget, and that it relies on the PUP senators to pave the
road-to-nowhere. Blocking the most hurtful of the budget reforms might
well be the kindest favour PUP could offer the government.






AAP/Alan Porritt



And in a strange twist, even The Australian knows this. In what was an astonishing editorial published on the weekend, “Time for Tony Abbott to commune with his people”, The Australian lectured a Liberal prime minister on how to lead.



The editorial manages to bury a few compliments in a list of
reprimands. Abbott is told he has failed to set a political agenda to:




… inspire voters and make headway on reforms that would preserve our lifestyle.
Further, Abbott continues to behave “as if he were opposition leader”.



The Abbott team is characterised by zealous centralised control, with the hunting down of leakers to maintain discipline.
Unless the government can communicate with the middle-income workers
who The Australian claims were attracted to its economic management
potential last election, it is in trouble.




The subtext of this editorial seems to be: Tony, we are happy to help
you out, get you elected, manufacture a majority view around carbon and
whatever else, but hey, you are making it difficult for us by turning
on the electorate. Be radical, yes, but we really can’t guarantee you a
second term if you keep up your current course. Do you hear what we are
saying? Please be a bit nicer to people.




With the poll and editorial in one weekend, News Corp’s masthead was
saying to Abbott: we’ll help out with carbon repeal, but clean up your
act.




But then again, a newspaper that makes a loss of $30 million per year according to the Financial Review, and has made a loss since 2007 according to its own editor, does not really need politicians to make it easy for them.



The colourful gallery of columnists at The Australian are not
accountable to readers at all, as they will always be subsidised by News
Corp’s tabloids. They will continue to be paid, no matter how bad their
journalism is, and no matter how few readers they have.




Comment: Coalition losing its grip on carbon tax mandate | SBS News

Comment: Coalition losing its grip on carbon tax mandate | SBS News




















  • null
    Prime
    Minister Tony Abbott arrives for House of Representatives question time
    at Parliament House, Canberra, Monday, July 14, 2014. (AAP)






"Scrapping this toxic tax" was meant to be a slam dunk for the Prime Minister. What happened?


By
Simon Copland


16 Jul 2014 - 1:00 PM  UPDATED YESTERDAY 1:00 PM







It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

After more debate yesterday the vote on the repeal of the carbon tax was delayed once again.
It seems likely the bill will limp through the Senate today. As the
Government celebrates however the victory must feel bittersweet.

More than anything the 2013 election was supposed to be
the mandate on the carbon tax. Just like the 2007 election resulted in
Workchoices being ‘dead, buried and cremated’, 2013 was supposed to see the end of carbon pricing for good.

null
 
As the repeal bill makes its way through the Senate
however, it has become clear the mandate the Coalition received has
slowly slipped away. The bills have been stripped of much of their
infrastructure - with the survival of the Clean Energy Finance
Corporation (CEFC), Renewable Energy Target (RET), The Australian
Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Climate Change Authority (CCA).
In doing so, each are making it through with significant opposition -
opposition that seems to refuse to back down.  

This is the problem for the Government. Whilst it will
pass the repeal it has done so with none of the authority required to
have a long-lasting impact. It has temporarily gotten rid of the carbon
price but it has not gotten rid of the debate - and in fact made it
worse for Tony Abbott and his cabinet over the past months.

“The Coalition’s campaign on the carbon
price has failed. Now in Government, their authority on the issue has
quickly vanished - leaving an emboldened opposition and climate movement
- even in spite of the major set back coming today.”

This is best highlighted by the reaction of Opposition
to the legislation. In the lead up to the vote, Opposition Leader Bill
Shorten accused the Prime Minister of
“sleepwalking his way into a major climate policy disaster, a disaster
for the Australian economy and for our environment, a disaster that
guarantees that forever more Tony Abbott will be remembered as an
environmental vandal”. For a leader that at one point actively
considered voting to support the repeal this is a massive turn around.

null

This sort of belief has been reflected in the broader community as well. Whilst there was basically no discussion of climate change in the 2013 election,
debate on the issue has exploded once again. Tony Abbott’s position has
taken Australia’s role onto an international level, activism on the
ground is growing, and more people are now in favour of the carbon price. This is quite a remarkable turn around in just ten months.

The Coalition’s campaign on the carbon price has failed.
Now in Government, their authority on the issue has quickly vanished -
leaving an emboldened opposition and climate movement - even in spite of
the major set back coming today.

This means that climate change is definitely not going
to be leaving the agenda any time soon. With the upcoming debate on the
bills to repeal the other parts of the legislative infrastructure, the UN Climate Summit in September
and the G20 in November, in fact it is just going to get stronger.
While this was supposed to be a good thing for the Coalition - an
opportunity to slam the Opposition for refusing to pass the repeal
legislation - this is no longer the case. The Government has showed a
weakness on the issue - one that has allowed the cross-bench to define
its agenda and that has lost them the narrative on climate change.

Herein lies the biggest problem of all. If the
Government can’t win on the carbon price, it shows how weak it truly is.
This was supposed to be its slam dunk - Tony Abbott's easy and major
victory. But instead it has been the opposite - a shambolic process that
has highlighted many of the Government’s weaknesses.

That shows lots of worrying signs for the next two years.

Simon Copland is a freelance writer and climate campaigner. He is a regular columnist for the Sydney Star Observer and blogs at The Moonbat