My Daily Advertiser Op Ed column for Tuesday 23 February 2021

ScoMo weaponising ‘Climate Tariffs’

Australia will push back against Britain’s sensible moves to establish climate tariffs. Scotty from Marketing’s government will argue the sanctions would be a new form of “protectionism” designed to shield local industries from free trade. The ghost of Tony Abbott will also no doubt whisper ‘carbon tax’ into their ears, as incorrect a statement now as it was during the Gillard government.

The issue could come to a head at the G7 summit in Britain in June, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been invited to attend. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has indicated it would be a key priority at the meeting of the world’s leading economies.

Johnson, riding a new wave of environmental momentum following the election of US President Joe Biden, has directed British government departments to come up with options for carbon border levies. He wisely believes they could act as a global emissions trading scheme as the world strives to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.

Carbon tariffs are imposed on energy-intensive imports that continue to trigger heated international debates. The European Union has advocated for them to be applied on imported goods that are produced in countries with weaker climate laws. It has already committed to imposing them by 2023, which is likely to include products made with Australian raw materials.

Mr Biden could also impose climate tariffs, with his “Buy American” economic plan endorsing a “carbon adjustment fee” at the border.

ScoMo’s government will argue carbon tariffs are not aimed at combating climate change, but rather at economic objectives including protecting local industries such as meat, cheese and wine.

Craig Emerson, a former Labor trade minister, said the EU and Britain were advanced in plans to apply the levies and the Biden administration would likely follow. He said carbon tariffs would not amount to protectionism and would be compliant with the World Trade Organisation’s rules if they were set at the correct rate.

“You have to design the mechanisms and set a rate so that it is sufficient to avoid carbon leakage, while not being in excess of that level which could constitute a form of protectionism and be non-compliant with WTO obligations,” he said.

Australia, Britain and the EU are in the early rounds of negotiating trade agreements. Australia is pushing back against any attempt to insert penalties or compliance mechanisms on climate into the deal, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

However, Europe will urge Australia to increase its 2030 emission reduction pledge in the lead-up to this year’s UN (Glasgow) climate conference, with the EU ambassador in Canberra saying all countries should embrace “more ambitious and emboldened” policies, the Guardian Australia reported.

Rather than take action on both counts, prime minister Scott Morrison is wrestling with internal dissent over the possibility of Australia embracing date-based emissions targets. The Nationals are mounting a campaign against a target date that is yet to be announced, let alone backed by a mechanism to get there.

Our own Michael McCormack, currently leader of the Nationals and therefore the Deputy Prime Minister, has recently been stridently telling all and sundry, including the PM, that agriculture must be excluded from any action to reduce our carbon emissions. Presumably McCormack thinks he his shoring up his base, i.e. farmers. Perhaps he should listen to the National Farmers Federation (NFF), which is committed to zero emissions by 2050.

Or perhaps McCormack is shoring up his other base, those coal-loving MPs on the Nationals back bench, ever ready to topple him from the leadership: Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, George Christiansen, and Bridget (Sports Rorts) McKenzie.

NFF President Fiona Simson said the strengthening of the NFF’s climate goals was a strong reminder of the role farmers already played in tackling emissions.                        

“Australia’s farm sector continues to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Ms Simson said. “In the past decade, agriculture has consistently reduced its emissions intensity and net emissions within the Australian economy. The red meat sector, for example, has a target of being carbon neutral by 2030 and is already making great headway on research and new technologies that will enable that transformation.”

“There is a huge potential for Australia to be a global leader in low-emissions agriculture,” Ms Simson concluded. Pay attention, Mr McCormack and colleagues. 

My Daily Advertiser Op Ed column for Tuesday 16 February 2021

Bushfire relief a pork-barrelling rort.

Local, state and national media has quite rightly been in an uproar over the bushfire recovery fund. It is at the centre of a new pork-barrelling scandal, with allegations funding has been blatantly targeted to Coalition-held state seats.

Readers will remember that there was, justifiably, an uproar when Gladys Berejiklian’s coalition state government awarded 95% of the Stronger Communities grants to coalition held seats. The Premier stared down the opposition with a bold-faced assertion that there was nothing wrong with pork-barrelling. “It’s not illegal. Everyone does it”.

Now comes news of more blatant pork-barrelling. Out of the $117 million Bushfire Recovery Fund only $2.5 million went to very badly burnt seats held by Labor and the Greens. That’s a mere 2.1%.

The fund was supposed to be a rescue package for all NSW communities ravaged by last year’s Black Summer.

Chairman of the state’s inquiry into the allocation of the funds, Greens MP David Shoebridge, tweeted “Almost 1/3 of the bush fire relief funds was channeled into one state electorate, Wagga Wagga, which just happens to be slap bang in the middle of Nationals MP and Deputy PM Michael McCormack’s seat.”

It also just happens that Wagga Wagga is a highly marginal state seat, held by independent MP Joe McGirr since the disgraced former Liberal member Daryl Maguire resigned. The Liberals have high hope of regaining the seat.

The federal and NSW governments made a joint announcement in November that $177 million of the $250 million scheme would be fast-tracked to 71 selected projects. This included a $10 million grant for Pratt’s global recycling juggernaut Visy to upgrade and modernise its paper mill in Tumut. This is in the Wagga state seat.

Pratt is one of the country’s biggest political donors and gave the Coalition $1.5 million last financial year.

Another famous billionaire has been drawn into the scandal. Mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is having to justify topping up the fund with cash from his multi-billion dollar philanthropy vehicle, the Minderoo Foundation.

Now that the scheme is set to be examined by the NSW parliamentary inquiry, is Minderoo putting its pledge on hold?

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who is responsible for overseeing the fund on behalf of the NSW government, rejected claims the fund had been politicised.

So did Member for Wagga Wagga Joe McGirr, who not surprisingly hit back at claims his electorate received a disproportionate amount of bushfire relief grants, saying that “I take umbrage at suggestions that somehow the people of our region don’t deserve support,” he told the Tumut and Adelong Times. It didn’t take Dr McGirr long to learn the finer points of political double-speak, for no one is actually saying that fired ravaged areas in the Wagga electorate don’t deserve support. 

“Shoebridge and Labor are attempting to undermine the good work this government is doing,” a spokesperson for Barilaro told Crikey.com.

The NSW inquiry follows revelations by journalist Elizabeth Minter that the fast-tracked funding has been heavily skewed towards Coalition-held seats.

Further analysis by David Shoebridge reveals just $2.5 million of the $177 million went to Labor-held seats (Cessnock and Lismore), with no funding going to the Labor-held seat of the Blue Mountains, the site of one of last year’s biggest fires.

In addition to the Blue Mountains, no funding went to the Central Coast or Ballina, which were all devastated by fires.

Yet as the fires burnt Ms Berejiklian visited the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast to show her support. It was in Gosford that she announced the fund.

As Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill told SMH columnist Peter FitzSimons “We got nothing, despite 80% of our heritage areas being burnt out, and so many businesses going to the wall.” 

Not surprisingly, David Shoebridge told Crikey.com the allocation of funding had been “highly politicised”.

“You can’t help but see the deep politics in this. No one even knew the funding was available until the recipients were tapped on the back.”

All this is not to say that the Wagga Wagga and Snowy Valleys regions weren’t deserving of the funding. Of course they were, but to receive almost all of the funding while other equally deserving areas missed out is pork-barrelling at its worst. One for ICAC, I reckon.

My Daily Advertiser Op Ed column for Tuesday 9 February 2021

Morrison government throws even more money at fossil fuels

The federal government has all but resolved to build a gas-fired power station in the Hunter Valley. It could help the Liberals/National coalition win the seat from Labor. But the ‘official’ reason would be because of the rising perception that the private sector will not fill the electricity generation gap to be created when the Liddell coal-fired plant closes in 2023.

Because of this it is increasingly likely the federal government, through its company, Snowy-Hydro, will have to make good on its threat to build its own plant.

Building gas or coal fired power plants flies in the face of all the evidence of what is urgently needed to reduce our carbon emissions to combat climate change. ScoMo’s government seems to be deliberately acting in a manner contrary to all sensible scientific advice.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor even accused his NSW counterpart, Matt Kean, of scaring away the private sector, reported Phillip Coorey in the Australian Financial Review.

When launching his gas-led recovery in September last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Commonwealth would step in and build a new generator to provide up to 1000 megawatts of dispatchable power should the private sector not outline firm investment plans by the end of April.

Subsequently, EnergyAustralia proposed a 300MW-400MW gas-fired Tallawarra B gas-fired generator, and AGL proposed a 250MW gas peaking station in Newcastle as well as a giant battery at Liddell.

But both plans were paused after Taylor’s NSW counterpart Matt Kean legislated his own energy plan late last year. It involved underwriting large-scale renewable energy projects.

Concerned about the viability of their proposed projects, EnergyAustralia and AGL have been in talks with the NSW government.

“The government has always said that if the private sector didn’t step up, then the government would step in and Snowy-Hydro’s gas plans are part of our response,” said Energy Minister Angus Taylor.

Mr Taylor urged Mr Kean to underwrite the gas projects, disingenuously arguing that renewables would not provide the dispatchable power needed when Liddell closed. Mr Kean has said previously he did not believe gas was the future, but the NSW government did deem the proposed Kurri Kurri station as “critical” state infrastructure.

Even if one of the private sector projects goes ahead, it is still likely the government will build a station at Kurri Kurri.

Mr Taylor said: “We had confidence that the 1000 MW target would be met by both the private sector and through the proposed gas generator at Kurri Kurri.

“However, since the release of the NSW government’s energy road map we have seen energy companies put proposed investments in new dispatchable capacity on hold.

“The government has always said that if the private sector didn’t step up, then the government would step in and Snowy-Hydro’s gas plans are part of our response,” Mr Taylor concluded.

Climate change denialist though Angus Taylor is, he pales in comparison to his coalition Nationals party members. They are continuing the coal push.

For the row described above comes as federal Nationals backbenchers, led by Queensland Senator Matt Canavan, outlined a plan to rejuvenate manufacturing which included the government building a coal-fired power station in the Hunter. This is a clear indication the Nats have their eye on the Labor seat.

Spreading misinformation in a manner worthy of Donald Trump, Senator Canavan said with gas prices on the march again, coal, which was in abundance in the Hunter, would provide more stable prices over the medium term.

He said it would be “folly” to rely on gas to underpin cheap energy for manufacturing and households when its price was so volatile.

“Gas prices can swing wildly. We’ve got the coal right there,” he said.

“We know exactly what it costs. We can provide price certainty for a decade,” reported Crikey.com.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who holds the seat of Hunter and wants the ALP to adopt a more conservative climate policy, said “I would welcome the arrival of an investor willing to invest approximately $3 billion in an efficient coal-powered electricity generator in the Hunter”.

Thankfully that’s not likely to happen. Unfortunately, a Morrison government-built gas power plant is. To the detriment of the climate of course, and many life forms here on earth.

My Daily Advertiser Op Ed column for Tuesday 2 February 2021

Morrison government needs to take urgent action on the environment

Those hoping new United States President Joe Biden would make action on climate change one of his top priorities would have been cheered by the flurry of activity from his first days in office.

Of course, this doesn’t mean an end to the military-industrial-consumer complex that has long dominated the US, most latterly in the very socially destructive neoliberal mode. Nonetheless, after four years of the Trump wrecking ball it is a move in the right direction.

Starting the new administration’s first full day in office, Biden’s special climate envoy, John Kerry was quick to point out that “Very few” nations were on a trajectory of cutting greenhouse emissions to meet even the current goals, “let alone the targets we need to avert catastrophic damage”.

But will ScoMo follow suit? The short answer is: don’t hold your breath. For not surprisingly, we are one of those counties lagging about setting a target of net zero emissions.

Climate Action Tracker rated our current target of cutting 2005-level emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 as “insufficient”, with “a lack of climate policy across all sectors”.

Falling behind on our emissions targets isn’t the only environmental problem facing us. Here’s a snapshot of some of the others in need of an urgent fix.

In the wake of last year’s bushfires, last year’s official assessment of the state of Australia’s natural environment by Graeme Samuel, the former competition watchdog chief, could hardly have been more dire.

Its interim report in July found Australia’s environment was in an unsustainable state of decline, and that the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was ineffective and needed substantial change.

Meanwhile, the auditor general’s office found the government and federal environment department were failing in their duty to protect nature.

Funding for environment programs was cut by more than a third after the Coalition was elected in 2013.

Instead ScoMo’s response was to try and fail to ram through legislation to transfer responsibility for approving major developments that affect the environment to the states and territories.

The Great Barrier Reef, our most globally recognisable natural landmark, suffered through its third major coral bleaching event since 2016 last year.

The news is even worse out west. The CSIRO has forecast a marine heatwave for the Western Australian coastline this year, with temperatures expected to hit the highest level in a decade, threatening the Ningaloo Coast and Shark Bay, both world heritage listed areas.

The capriciousness of New South Wales politics was on full display last year when the deputy premier, John Barilaro, threatened, but failed to resign ostensibly over a policy designed to protect koalas, just months after the iconic species was devastated by the summer bushfires.

A compromise deal between the governing Liberal and National parties over the koala state environmental planning policy failed. Instead, NSW reverted to an old koala policy, from 1995, with a promise to develop a new one this year.

Meanwhile, the government continues to sanction clearing of the forests that koalas rely on.

Though the shift to electrical vehicles (EVs) is urgent, Australia trails other countries in their uptake. A long-delayed Morrison government EV policy was due late last year but has yet to be released. A leaked draft suggests it will not include direct incentives for consumers to switch to battery-powered cars.

Other countries have seen a climate and economic advantage in moving now. Britain and Japan, major countries that, like Australia, use right-hand-side drive cars, announced late last year they would ban the sale of new petrol cars by 2030 and 2035 respectively. They have introduced incentives to drive the change.

Australia appears headed in the other direction with no significant incentives. Some states are planning to introduce road-user charges on EVs. Victoria and South Australia are heading down this path, and NSW is considering it.

So far the government is failing to act on all of the above. As talk of a federal election sooner rather than later increases, ScoMo could become an environmental champion. Unfortunately, his track record indicates that he will fail to act. After all, if he did Deputy PM Michael McCormack could accuse him of being ‘woke’.