Michael Pascoe: How Murdoch’s myrmidons murdered climate policy

“The Murdoch media, determined to remove the Labor government at any cost, mounted a savage war on the science of climate change and the structural reforms that needed to be undertaken,” wrote former Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan in a 2017 article and reprised this week on Twitter.

Rupert Murdoch's far-reaching press power has consistently
silenced climate change news, keeping the Coalition in a comfortable position, Michael Pascoe writes.

It’s an important insight as it suggests an answer to the mystery of the Murdoch media’s rabid climate denialism in Australia – a campaign by our biggest newspaper company that has both enabled and goaded the troglodyte end of the Coalition to make Australia a world leader in fighting carbon reduction, in worsening our changed climate.

Without the on-going Murdoch campaign promoting climate disinformation and sheer lunacy, it’s hard to imagine any government being able to persist with its cynical twisting of emissions policy, never mind outright lies.

Read The New Daily story - “Michael Pascoe: How Murdoch’s myrmidons murdered climate policy.”

Labor promises a comprehensive overhaul of federal environmental framework

Australia will get the biggest overhaul of its federal environment laws in two decades if a Labor government is elected next year.

As environmental laws were foreshadowed at the Labor national
 conference, outside a climate change rally was in full swing.

Labor would establish a new Australian Environment Act and create a federal Environmental Protection Agency in its first term.

The commitments were flagged by Bill Shorten and approved by delegates at the ALP national conference, which is meeting in Adelaide.

The new legislation would replace the present Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act which was passed under the Howard government’s environment minister Robert Hill in 1999.

The new agency would oversee and enforce the revised act, conduct inquiries and advise the minister on environmental approval decisions.

Read the story by Michelle Gratton from The Conversation - “Labor promises a comprehensive overhaul of federal environmental framework.”

‘Not a big drama' for electricity industry to slash emissions, says scheme architect

The head of the expert board advising the federal Coalition on its signature energy plan says it would not be a "big drama" for the electricity industry if a future Labor government enforced far stronger cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr Kerry Schott is advising the federal government on the energy plan.

Labor states say they will withhold final support for the Turnbull government proposal to merge climate and energy policy - known as the national energy guarantee - until they are assured a successive government will not be blocked from ratcheting up carbon savings.

Read the story by Nicole Hasham and Peter Carey from today’s Age - “‘Not a big drama' for electricity industry to slash emissions, says scheme architect.”

Queensland’s new land clearing bill will help turn the tide, despite its flaws

Queensland’s Labor government this month tabled a bill to tighten the regulation of land clearing. Queensland is by far the worst offender in this area, following a litany of reversals of vegetation protection.

After a period of tightened laws between 2004 and 2013, the Newman government set about unwinding key reforms during its 2012-15 term.

Following these changes, land-clearing rates quadrupled to almost 400,000 hectares per year, to the dismay of conservationists, with rising concern about the impacts on wild animal welfare and wider ecological impacts.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Queensland’s new land clearing bill will help turn the tide, despite its flaws.”

Bill Shorten pledges overhaul of energy market and renewable investment rules

A Labor government would overhaul National Energy Market rules to better serve consumers and relax renewable energy investment thresholds to get more capital flowing into electricity storage projects.

Bill Shorten wants to relax the rules around
renewable energy investment. 

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is also pledging to create Renewable Energy Zones – geographic areas with the right resources, topography and developer interest to drive cost-effective renewable projects.

In a speech to be delivered to the Australian Financial Review's National Energy Summit in Sydney on Monday, Mr Shorten will also reiterate Labor's willingness to negotiate with the Turnbull government a "fair dinkum" clean energy target.

"This does not mean compromise at any cost. A framework that isn't fair dinkum will not receive our support," Mr Shorten will tell the conference

Read Adam Gartrell’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Bill Shorten pledges overhaul of energy market and renewable investment rules.”

Victoria steps up climate ambition. Turnbull takes two steps back

Victoria steps up, and the Turnbull
Government steps back.

As an increasingly divided Turnbull government rules out any new policy tools to cut power sector emissions or boost renewable energy development, Victoria’s Labor government has upped the ante on climate action, pledging to cut state emissions by up to 20 per cent within three years on the road to its ultimate target of zero net emissions by 2050.

The new interim target, announced by Victoria’s energy and climate minister Lily D’Ambrosio on Sunday, aims to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by between 15-20 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Details on how the Andrews government aims to meet that target were released alongside the party’s Climate Change Framework, which maps out a plan to 2020 to put it on track for its 2050 goal.

As has been noted, the majority of the 2020 target will be met through the March closure of the state’s Hazelwood coal power station, following a decision made by the plant’s French owners, Engie, last year. But it will also require other cuts through energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “Victoria steps up climate ambition. Turnbull takes two steps back.”

Moratorium on logging Tasmania's old growth forests could be reversed

(Hard questions are already being asked of the Australian Government about how it is going to meet its Paris climate commitments and so logging a forest, old growth or otherwise, is the antithesis of what is needed and so although this may well be seen as a state matter, it seems the Turnbull Government should step in, rather, it must take action – Robert McLean)

Tasmanian government will consider reversing a
 moratorium on logging in old growth forests. 

Old growth forests in the Tarkine could be logged by private companies under plans being considered by the Tasmanian government to reverse a moratorium on harvesting 400,000ha of high conservation value forests. 

The forests were part of 500,000ha protected under the forest peace deal signed by the former Labor government in 2013, which would have seen them eventually gazetted into national parks.

That deal was ripped up by the Hodgman Liberal government when it came to power in 2014, and the 400,000ha of future forest reserves were rebadged as future potential production forests, to remain formally in reserves until 2020.

Simultaneous efforts to prevent the remaining 100,000ha from being included in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area failed.

Read The Guardian story - “Moratorium on logging Tasmania's old growth forests could be reversed.”

Report stumbles and falls for ideological reasons, and fails Australians

Australia’s latest “Intergenerational Report” stumbled and fell for ideological reasons when confronted with the realities of climate change.

Our existing neo-liberal Coalition Government has always found the idea of climate contrary to its grand designs; designs that hinge entirely of more of what was and live or die on a carbon rich economy.

Our previous Intergenerational Report, a produce of the then Labor Government, devoted an entire chapter to the challenges of climate change, while this latest report, handed down by Treasurer Joe Hockey, limited  what is in fact a nation-defining difficulty to just three pages.

This timely missed opportunity to address the greatest risk Australia has ever faced has been lamented on The Drum by Olivia Kember and Kate Mackenzie

Writing in “Intergenerational Report fails us on climate risks”  they said: “The Intergenerational Report is all about what's most important for our future, so it's a shame it became another missed opportunity to address the biggest risk issue of the day: climate change.