What Clive Palmer wants for his $60m.

As the argument raged this week about the Liberal and National parties’ allocation of preferences to fringe right-wing candidates at the upcoming election, one of those candidates, Clive Palmer, was utterly dismissive of all the fuss.

The United Australia Party leader at a press
conference in Townsville last month.

It was a debate over nothing, he said on Monday, because: “The United Australia Party will win government, consequently our preferences may never be distributed.”

It was not the first time Palmer had made this fantastical assertion. And there is further evidence of a fantasy preparation for government on the UAP website.

Read the story from The Saturday Paper by Mike Seccombe - “What Clive Palmer wants for his $60m.”

Clive Palmer seeks approval for 'monster mine' next door to Adani

Clive Palmer has sought federal environmental approval for a huge greenfield coal mine in central Queensland, which documents suggest could produce 33 per cent more coal than Adani's controversial and delayed Carmichael mine.

Clive Palmer's proposed Alpha North mine relative
to Adani's controversial Carmichael mine in the
 Galilee Basin.

Its viability depends on the construction of the Carmichael mine, or another mine with a rail link to the coast, adding weight to claims the Adani project could open the floodgates to significantly more coal mining in the Galilee Basin.

Environmentalists have called for the Federal Government to reject the new application out-of-hand, without a full assessment.

They pointed to the impact the mine would potentially have on climate change, freshwater springs, the Great Artesian Basin and threatened species in the area including the black-throated finch and koalas.

Read the ABC News story by Michael Slezak - “Clive Palmer seeks approval for 'monster mine' next door to Adani.”

Australia joining US in openly trashing global climate efforts

Bill McKibben warns Australia risks
 missing out on the new jobs and
 investment opportunities offered by
 renewable energy industries.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Here we are – Donald Trump is about to become the 45th president of the United States and we have to prepare for the onslaught.

It beggars belief that in 2016 an outright climate change denier could rise to the highest office in the US, dragging with him a Republican controlled Congress hungry to revive the old glory days of coal, gas and oil, not to mention a Secretary of State that until last month ran the biggest oil company on earth.

Yet while Australians may groan and worry at the destruction that Trump will bring, take a look at your own Trump-like administration.

Washington DC may be awash with fossil fuel operatives, but Australia is no stranger to fossil fuel barons holding political sway either – indeed, you elected one to Parliament a few years ago in the form of Clive Palmer. And as Trump thrusts the US firmly into a position as international climate pariah, we are sadly joining Australia as two rogue developed nations openly trashing global climate efforts.

Bill McKibben writes for The Sydney Morning Herald - “Australia joining US in openly trashing global climate efforts.”

Living in the thrall of climate change

We are presently in the thrall of climate change.

Clive Palmer.

Decades in which we could have truly abated the worst of what is happening have collapsed under deluge of rhetoric, doubt and controversy, leaving the world committed to comprehending, and dealing with the outcome of an experiment, which will bring difficulties we don’t yet understand.

Many Australians have worked tirelessly to the public awareness of the seriousness inherent in climate change, but the Australian Government, led by a Prime Minister who has declared climate change to be “crap”, has worked with a perverse diligence to dismantle most everything aimed at preparing the country to play its part in addressing climate change.

Amid much misplace whoopin’ and hollerin’, and political machinations; the Tony Abbott led coalition has finally brought to reality is signature legislation of “Direct Action”.

With Environment Minster, Greg Hunt led the assault on Australia’s climate change infrastructure and to get the government’s Direct Action policy adopted, he won the support of Clive Palmer of the Palmer United Party and independents, Nick Xenophon and John Madigan.

The Melbourne Age has editorialised about these development in a piece headed: “The long, painful path to an ETS” and has argued this could be a necessary step in getting back to an emissions-trading scheme.

Australia was once among world’s leaders with its carbon tax, but now it seems to get something similar, we to follow this convoluted path.

Part of the deal to the PUP support the Direct Action legislation saw agreement from the government to see the Climate Change Authority conduct an 18 month inquiry the effectiveness of emission trading schemes around the world.

Confusingly, Mr Hunt has said that the coalition would never back any scheme and so leave taxpayers rather expensive cost for achieving nothing.

The Abbott-led government is presently prosecuting a joint police taskforce to uncover illegal activity within Victoria's unions.

The circumstances are clearly different, but surely there are legal similarities between what our trade unions have allegedly been up to and what the Federal Government has openly declared it will be doing – conducting a massively expensive inquiry with, by its own admission, absolutely no intention of acting upon what it recommends, certainly if it suggests Australia should, and must, embrace some sort of emission trading scheme.

Coal miner blocks carbon tax repeal

Clive Palmer.

The coal miner walks into the Senate and blocks the repeal of the carbon tax.

Sounds like a joke and it probably will be if we are ever allowed access to the intrigue surrounding Clive Palmer and the Palmer United Party senators.

The Senate today blocked the repeal of Australia’s carbon tax in a 35 to 37 vote.

It was only earlier this morning that Australia’s PM, Tony Abbott, in a Perth press conference was almost celebrating the demise of the carbon tax legislation.

He was wrong as noted in this report from the Australian Financial Review headed: “Clive Palmer blocks carbon tax repeal”.

For the moment, thanks Clive, but let’s withhold the real back-slapping until next week when the government will rush the repeal legislation back to the Senate.

We bicker and procrastinate while nature seeks equilibrium

Al Gore - An Inconvenient Truth.

Politicians and the other responsible men continue to bicker and procrastinate about climate change, while nature, totally disinterested in those pointless postponements, continues to seek the equilibrium humans have disrupted.

Climate change advocate and the fellow who warned the world of the “inconvenient truth” , Al Gore is present in Australia and has meet and talked with coal billionaire and Federal politician, Clive Palmer, who this morning was to breakfast with Australia’s PM, Tony Abbott.

A story headed: “Clive Palmer will help axe carbon tax but courts Al Gore in push for ETS” and published today by the ABC told a little of discussions between this disparate collection of decision makers.