Turnbull warns of 'catastrophic' future if we don't move to net zero

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has slammed the "false" and "misleading" claims in Parliament about the risk of achieving net zero emissions, rebuking his former colleagues for ignoring the cost of inaction on climate change.

Malcolm Turnbull - warnings of a "catastrophic future".

Mr Turnbull warned of a "catastrophic" future if Australia and other countries did not move to net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, throwing more weight behind a 2050 deadline for target.

In a blunt speech to the Informa conference of energy executives, he fired a series of warning shots at Prime Minister Scott Morrison by warning the "bubble" debate in Canberra put the country in danger from inaction on climate change.

"We've got to stop this false debate, this misleading debate about whether getting to net zero emissions by 2050 ... is something that's optional," he said in Sydney on Tuesday.

Read the story from The Age by David Crowe - “Turnbull warns of 'catastrophic' future if we don't move to net zero.”

Politicians 'from Donald Trump down' who insult Greta Thunberg are 'absolutely ridiculous', says Malcolm Turnbull

Politicians "from Donald Trump down" who insulted teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg made themselves "absolutely ridiculous", says former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, while also calling politicians who cannot admit their mistakes "pathetic".

Malcolm Turnbull and his daughter Daisy Turnbull Brown with students Alice
Morgan, Ethan Cheung and Eloise Aiken at Sydney University on Friday.

"There is nothing more ridiculous than middle-aged or adult people, politicians in particular, mocking or deriding teenagers for expressing political opinion," Mr Turnbull said on Friday.

"The pile-on onto Greta Thunberg was surely one of the most ridiculous, absurd exercises. It made all those know-it-alls in the media and politicians, from Donald Trump down, attacking her, look absolutely ridiculous and I hope they all had enough self-awareness to realise."

Mr Turnbull was speaking at the University of Sydney, at the Side by Side conference on social inequality run by Sydney’s Wayside Chapel with which the Turnbulls have a long association.

Read the story from The Age by Jacqueline Maley - “Politicians 'from Donald Trump down' who insult Greta Thunberg are 'absolutely ridiculous', says Malcolm Turnbull.”

‘Simply no more excuses’: Malcolm Turnbull and other angry Australians slam PM Scott Morrison on climate change policy

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called upon Australia to act against climate change, saying there are “simply no more excuses”.

Malcolm Turnbull says Scott Morrison has "simply no more excuses".

“How much of our country has to burn, how many lives have to be lost, homes destroyed before we resolve as a nation to act on climate change?” Mr Turnbull wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian, published this morning.

“There are simply no more excuses. We cannot allow political prejudice and vested interests to hold us up any longer,” he said in the article.

“The election is won, and the fires have surely demonstrated that an integrated climate and energy policy is vital.

“The world must, and I believe will, stop burning coal if we are to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. And the sooner the better.

Read the story from news.com by Alex Turner-Cohen - “‘Simply no more excuses’: Malcolm Turnbull and other angry Australians slam PM Scott Morrison on climate change policy.”

Malcolm Turnbull says Liberals' struggles with climate denial are hurting Australia

Former prime minister Malcolm
Turnbull has slammed the Liberals’
 lack of climate policy.

Malcolm Turnbull says Australia will struggle to meet its Paris emissions target without rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector, and he says the Liberal party’s continuing failure to develop a coherent climate and energy policy is costing the country much-needed new investment in power generation.

In a wide-ranging interview with Guardian Australia’s politics live podcast ahead of the publication of his memoir next year, the former prime minister said the Liberal party had struggled with climate change denialism since 2007 because climate change had morphed into an issue of “identity” rather than fact.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “Malcolm Turnbull says Liberals' struggles with climate denial are hurting Australia.” 

Taylor has failed on energy prices, let’s hope he does better on emissions

When Angus Taylor was first appointed energy minister after the dethroning of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last August, he really only had one policy remit – to cut prices.

Angus Taylor failed in his efforts to reduce energy prices and so
it is unlikely he'll do any better in trying to contain emissions.

So much so that the man who gave him the post, the newly appointed PM Scott Morrison, dubbed him the minister for lowering electricity prices. Despite Taylor declaring a few days later in his first ministerial speech that wholesale prices had turned the corner, it hasn’t worked out that way.

Taylor has now been granted a double-barrel portfolio of responsibilities, newly re-minted as the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, bringing together the combined tasks of a clean energy transition with emissions reductions that were separated after the removal of Turnbull. 

Let’s hope he has better luck with the new portfolio than he did with the first.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Giles Parkinson - “Taylor has failed on energy prices, let’s hope he does better on emissions.”

Malcolm Turnbull pushes revenge button as Tony Abbott's climate change highlights election panic

Tony Abbott pulled the panic lever on Friday, and Malcolm Turnbull pushed the revenge button.

Tony Abbott backflipped on his position the Paris
Agreement during a candidates' forum.

The gainers from these spectacular plays were Zali Steggall, the independent candidate who is trying to oust Abbott in Warringah, and Bill Shorten, who is handed another break in his campaign to defeat the Government.

Years ago, in a much earlier round of the climate and emissions wars, Mr Abbott referred to himself as a "weather vane”.

That accurate self-assessment invited ridicule, but his latest change of direction is beyond absurd.

Read the ABC News story by Michelle Grattan - “Malcolm Turnbull pushes revenge button as Tony Abbott's climate change highlights election panic.”

(Listen to the “Climate Conversations” podcast featuring Zali Steggall)

A littler energy stick - Forget fake news, this is fake policy

Australia’s muddy energy debate got even muddier today. Malcolm Turnbull called [$] on the federal government to revive the National Energy Guarantee he developed with former environment minister Josh Frydenberg – a policy that is supported by industry, and is now official Labor policy. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his Labor colleagues hurled Turnbull’s comments at Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Question Time. On the back foot over his previous support for the NEG, Morrison countered by blaming Labor’s reckless 45 per cent emissions reduction target, and accused them of failing to take on the big energy companies to get prices down.

Former environment minister Josh Frydenberg.

Meanwhile, now-treasurer Frydenberg and Energy Minister Angus Taylor walked back their highly interventionist “big stick” legislation to break-up energy companies who don’t lower prices, to get it through a Coalition joint party room that’s concerned the laws were opposed by industry and would discourage investment. Things hit peak farce when Frydenberg tried to use an old Shorten line, describing the NEG as a Frankenstein policy, against Shorten, but was immediately dubbed “Dr Frankenstein” because the treasurer designed the policy in the first place, and was advocating for it fiercely just three months ago. It is Alice-in-Wonderland stuff. Few could keep a straight face.

Turnbull’s comments at a Smart Energy Council conference today were pointed, although it is hard not to ponder how much more progress he might have made if he had been equally frank when he was prime minister. Turnbull said there was no stronger supporter of the NEG within his government than Morrison and Frydenberg, but that a significant percentage of Coalition MPs did not believe in climate change, wanted Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement, and were prepared to “blow up the government in order to get their way”. He added that the Morrison government’s “big stick” threats to energy companies are no substitute for a comprehensive climate and energy policy, and accused the Coalition of being mired in ignorance and idiocy. Turnbull is not alone in that view, with NSW education minister Rob Stokes, desperate to distance the state government from the federal government in the wake of the Victorian wipe-out, today accusing some of his federal counterparts of wilful ignorance over climate change, and saying he understood why last week’s striking students were frustrated.

Trying to answer Turnbull’s criticisms in Question Time today, Morrison picked up on a clarifying tweet by the former prime minister, which stated that “I have not endorsed ‘Labor’s energy policy’. They have adopted the NEG mechanism ✔️ but have not demonstrated that their 45% emissions reduction target will not push up prices. I encouraged all parties to stick with Coalition’s NEG which retains wide community support.” When Labor and the Coalition are hurling Turnbull tweets at each other, you know that serious debate is over. It is almost admirable how Frydenberg and Morrison believe they can brazenly go to an election after such an about-face; arguing that their own NEG is bad policy, that black is white. Forget about fake news; this is fake policy.

The Coalition is at sea with its radical divestment powers, which, as the AFR flagged [$] this morning, had been watered down following a backlash from business and its own backbench, as well as significant doubts about their constitutionality. What’s more, they may not be passed before the election, with the government postponing plans to put them to the Senate until next year. In the joint partyroom meeting this morning, the prime minister justified the intervention by saying that the national energy market was “not a free market nirvana” but was instead a “bastardised market with legislated rates of return”. Regardless, it would hardly be surprising if these laws never see the light of day.

Story from The Monthly - “A littler energy stick - Forget fake news, this is fake policy.”

It should not be up to Australia's schoolchildren to stop Adani

The Coalition government under Scott Morrison appears to have forgotten the first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging. It’s far too early to describe the Morrison government as terminal; the six months or so till a mooted May federal election is a long time in politics. But the government seems content to write off the message from Liberal voters in Wentworth and Victoria, particularly on climate change, because they do not represent its ‘base’. God only knows where the Liberal base is if it isn’t located in blue ribbon Liberal seats, but who are we to argue?

There were 114 fires burning across Queensland on Friday.CREDIT:

Coalition government policies under John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and now Scott Morrison have failed to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Australia’s emissions are rising when they should be falling. Worse, the Morrison government appears determined to back policies and projects that will increase emissions and fuel global warming.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Ebony Bennett - “It should not be up to Australia's schoolchildren to stop Adani.”

Turnbull says climate change has become a 'third rail' for Liberal party

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says a “constituency” of Coalition MPs believes climate change is a fraud, and that the issue has become a “third rail” for the Liberal party.

 Malcolm Turnbull: ‘The Liberal Party and the Coalition
is not capable of dealing with climate change.’ 

Speaking at the Australia Bar Association’s annual conference in Sydney on Friday night, Turnbull, the guest of honour at the event, said a climate-sceptic group within his own party held the line that “if you don’t do what we want, we will blow the show up,” the Australian reported.

“And that is essentially what you’ve seen — and so the problem is that everybody loses”.

Turnbull, who was replaced as prime minister by Scott Morrison in August and subsequently retired from politics, was asked at the event about his personal commitment to act on climate change. He famously crossed the floor in opposition to vote with Labor in support of an emissions trading scheme, but as prime minister led a government with little resolve to reduce emissions.

Read the story from The Guardian - “Turnbull says climate change has become a 'third rail' for Liberal party.”

The Morrison government’s biggest economic problem? Climate change denial

Last week Peter Costello accused Malcolm Turnbull of failing to develop an economic narrative to unite the Coalition. Turnbull promised this when he challenged Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party, but, said Costello, it never came, and the result is a government struggling to manage deep differences over social issues. There was “jobs and growth”, but this is really just a goal without much of a story about how to get there, except for the company tax cuts.

The government’s stubborn commitment to coal is alienating
 it from its natural supporters in the business community.

The big question, though, is why the government does not have a coherent economic narrative.

One possible answer is that it has been too preoccupied with social issues such as religious freedom and before that, same-sex marriage, to give the economy sufficient attention. There is something in that.

Read what the Emeritus Professor of Politics, La Trobe University, Judith Brett, has written on The Conversation - “The Morrison government’s biggest economic problem? Climate change denial.”

Climate change is World War III, and we are leaderless

"World War III is well and truly underway. And we are losing," writes environmental activist Bill McKibben, so when Malcolm Turnbull implied that the insurgency that demolished his government was based on climate ideology, what lessons are there for Scott Morrison?

Prime Minister, please call for a personal briefing
 by Australia's leading climate scientists.

As a child in Britain during WWII, I lived in a street of mothers and children. Every father was away fighting. Each house and garden was surrounded by a metal palisade fence.

Read the ABC News story by David Shearman - “Climate change is World War III, and we are leaderless.”

Cabinet ministers rejected Turnbull's $1.6 billion plan to cut power bills before leadership implosion

Cabinet ministers rejected a $1.6 billion plan to cut power bills for thousands of Australians in the days before a Liberal Party brawl on energy policy that helped bring down Malcolm Turnbull.

Energy policy and power affordability played a role
in Malcolm Turnbull's demise as prime minister.

Fairfax Media can reveal the Coalition government had drafted plans for a one-off bonus to help pensioners and others in financial stress pay their electricity bills, in a bid to demonstrate stronger action on power prices alongside tougher consumer laws.

Mr Turnbull put the plan to federal cabinet in early August at the same time he was trying to shore up support for the National Energy Guarantee against threats from Tony Abbott and others to cross the floor.

In a crucial decision, cabinet members rejected the plan to lower power bills and left the government without new measures to address household energy costs in the face of the backbench revolt over the NEG.

Read the story from The Age by David Crowe - “Cabinet ministers rejected Turnbull's $1.6 billion plan to cut power bills before leadership implosion.”

The Global Rightward Shift on Climate Change

Last Thursday, Malcolm Turnbull was the prime minister of Australia. By the end of this week, he’ll be just another guy in Sydney.

President Donald Trump speaks next to then-Australian
 prime minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House in February.

Turnbull was felled by climate-change policy. His attempt at a moderate, even milquetoast energy bill—which included some mild cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions—proved too aggressive for his co-partisans. On Friday, members of Australia’s center-right Liberal Party voted him out of office.

Pity for Turnbull, though at least he can he can trudge home to his mansion on Sydney Harbor. And pity for Australia, which lately has had some trouble keeping its prime ministers in office. (It’s churned through six of them since 2007.) Yet even setting that context aside, Turnbull’s tumble remains a disquieting sign for anyone hoping for an aggressive global climate policy. In Australia—where global warming has contributed to the die-off of half the coral in the Great Barrier Reef since 2016—even a mild climate bill could not pass under a conservative government.

Read the story from The Atlantic by Robinson Meyer - “The Global Rightward Shift on Climate Change.”

Turnbull has been given a reprieve on leadership

Malcolm Turnbull has been given a reprieve on leadership while he faces a test on policy.

'It's personal': former prime minister Tony Abbott.

His fate depends on an unlikely – perhaps impossible – settlement to his own party’s endless wars on climate change.

The Prime Minister has given his critics a huge concession on the National Energy Guarantee but it is not enough. It will never be enough. A clash is certain.

Read the comment by David Crowe from The Age - “Turnbull has been given a reprieve on leadership.”

Malcolm Turnbull defends surprise $444 million Government donation to tiny reef body

Malcolm Turnbull insists the Government's nearly half-a-billion-dollar donation to a private foundation with links to big resources companies has been done transparently, despite the body itself not asking for the money.

The PM has called the donation "a wonderful investment
in ensuring that we maintain the health of the Great Barrier Reef"

In April the Government announced it would give the Great Barrier Reef Foundation $444 million to fund projects to improve the health of the reef.

The foundation had only six staff when it was told it was getting the huge grant, which managing director Anna Marsden told Radio National was an "absolute surprise”.

Read the ABC News story by Louise Yaxley - “Malcolm Turnbull defends surprise $444 million Government donation to tiny reef body.”

(Responsibility for the demise and death of Australia's Great Barrier Reef can be laid at the feet of Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, and those of his coalition cohort - Robert McLean)

Heading back to the age of dinosaurs

From today's Melbourne Age - 

No environment officials at Turnbull meeting about $443m reef grant to tiny charity

No environment department officials were present at a meeting in which the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, discussed a plan that led to a $443.8m grant to a small Great Barrier Reef charity.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has confirmed it did not
seek the $444m federal grant to help support the health of the reef.

The charity, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, has also confirmed that its founders were wealthy businessmen and philanthropists with links to the resources industry, and one was a senior public servant in the Bjelke-Petersen government.

In hearings this week for a Senate inquiry examining how the foundation came to be awarded the funds, its managing director, Anna Marsden, said the foundation’s chairman, John Schubert, was informed there would be a budget allocation at a 9 April meeting with Turnbull, Frydenberg and the secretary of the Environment and Energy Department, Finn Pratt.

Read the story boy Lisa Cox from The Guardian - “No environment officials at Turnbull meeting about $443m reef grant to tiny charity.”

Tony Abbott steps up attack on Malcolm Turnbull's climate plan

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told nervous Liberal and Nationals MPs that Australia must do its part to cut greenhouse gas emissions, as his predecessor Tony Abbott led another attack on the issue in the Coalition party room.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has again
questioned the Coalition's energy policy.

Mr Turnbull held the line on the government’s pledge to cut emissions by 26 per cent by 2030 under the National Energy Guarantee, against vocal concerns from six Liberal MPs, including Mr Abbott.

At one point Mr Abbott claimed he was “misled by bureaucrats” over the cost of the emissions cut he helped decide as Prime Minister in 2015, which was taken to the United Nations climate talks in Paris that year.

Read the story from The Age by David Crowe - “Tony Abbott steps up attack on Malcolm Turnbull's climate plan.”

‘No doubt our climate is getting warmer,' Malcolm Turnbull says

Malcolm Turnbull, on a tour of drought-stricken areas in New South Wales and Queensland, has declared there is “no doubt that our climate is getting warmer”.

 Turnbull: ‘I don’t know many people in rural NSW that I
talk to that don’t think the climate is getting drier.’ 

Flanked by Nationals on Monday in Trangie, Turnbull acknowledged climate change remained a live political debate but he said: “I don’t know many people in rural New South Wales that I talk to that don’t think the climate is getting drier and rainfall is becoming more volatile.”

The minister for agriculture, David Littleproud, said the last agricultural ministerial council had agreed to help transition farmers into a changing environment and a changing climate.

Read Katharine Murphy’s story from The Guardian - “‘No doubt our climate is getting warmer,' Malcolm Turnbull says.”

What’s really behind the pro-coal Monash Forum

When Malcolm Turnbull challenged Tony Abbott by invoking his 30th bad Newspoll, the primary vote for both Labor and the Liberals was 39 per cent. Abbott had crashed the Coalition’s primary vote to that level from 45.6 per cent on polling day in 2013.

Tony Abbott and Craig Kelly are two key members of the Monash Forum. 

And then a fortnight ago, the 29th losing Newspoll for Malcolm Turnbull recorded the Coalition’s primary vote even lower at 37 per cent, down from the 42 per cent achieved by the PM on polling day in 2016. Labor’s vote had improved from 34.7 per cent to 39 per cent over the same period.

Supporters of Tony Abbott aim to make the most of this synchronicity when Mr Turnbull’s 30th losing Newspoll appears on Monday. They kicked things off this week by confecting a test of Mr Turnbull’s leadership on energy policy aimed at chipping away the PM’s soft supporters to create momentum for a leadership challenge in May.

Read Paula Mathewson’s story from The New Daily - “What’s really behind the pro-coal Monash Forum.”