Independent climate campaigner ends Liberals’ 61-year hold of Wagga Wagga

The Daily Telegraph is calling it a Bush Bloodbath. But could the crushing by-election defeat of the Liberal Party in a regional seat it has held safely since 1957 be more accurately described as a Climate Comeuppance?

Climate campaigner, Joe McGirr, dislodges the Liberal
 Party from the blue ribbon Riverina Electorate.

The final numbers are not in yet, but it has been called: The blue ribbon Riverina electorate of Wagga Wagga has been won by an independent candidate called Joe McGirr – a medical doctor who puts climate change firmly at the top of his political agenda.

Dr Joe, according to an article published late last week in The Australian, is not for turning on this stance, and has gone as far as to have “written articles” about the dangers of the global warming and supported organisations like the Climate Council.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Sophie Vorrath - “Independent climate campaigner ends Liberals’ 61-year hold of Wagga Wagga.”

Lies, damned lies and then there is data

T

he Daily Telegraph yesterday published a set of Big Scary Numbers around ambitious action on climate change, leading to lower economic growth, lower wage growth and the winding down of the coal industry.

In response the federal environment minister Greg Hunt stated that “What Labor refuses to learn is that you can tackle climate change without a carbon tax. You can tackle climate change without a [A]$633 billion hit to the economy.”

Where do such numbers — and associated apocalyptic scenarios — come from, what do they mean, and is ambitious action a recipe for a significant hit to the economy and our living standards?

Read The Conversation story - “How to make sense of big, scary climate costs”.