No issue in Australia this century has been more crippling, more divisive nor more fatal to prime ministers than the question of climate change.
No issue in Australia this century has been more crippling, more divisive nor more fatal to prime ministers than the question of climate change.
It has been willingly used as a weapon by the hard right to club their ideological enemies but it has also been deployed by the hard left to wipe out practical progress in the name of ideological purity. Whether by intent or incompetence is often indistinguishable.
The most critical moment was of course when the Greens effectively killed off Labor’s emissions trading scheme a little over a decade ago.
Granted the Libs had already rolled their leader over it but at least when the Right block action on climate change they are not soaked in hypocrisy. At least they got the result they actually wanted.
As a result of the Greens’ folly Australia will likely never have the emissions trading scheme that is the Greens’ own holy grail. In terms of acting against one’s own interests, it is arguably the single greatest political stuff-up of any party in recent memory.
The good news is that Australia no longer needs an emissions trading scheme. The flight to renewables has happened already and competition and innovation have made clean power more cheap and efficient than was ever predicted even those few years ago.
In short, business, consumers and technology have overtaken government policy. Capitalism is conquering climate change — a concept that has clearly confused some greenies who are a tad red on the inside, and not just with rage.
As a result activist groups target businesses with calls for boycotts if they are not perceived to be pure enough. Moreover they demand any businesses that feign good corporate citizenship pull their advertising from any media outlets that air contrarian views so as to pressure them into adopting a more progressive stance.
But here comes the punchline: If a business or media outlet does adopt a more progressive stance, they accuse them of only doing it for the money.
This has been the hysterical and at times hilarious response to News Corp Australia’s editorial series Mission Zero, which I have been quietly working on alongside many other fine reporters for the best part of three months.
Various exercised parties have claimed credit for forcing the organisation to do it for commercial reasons while also condemning the organisation for doing it for commercial reasons.
Another popular trope is to take whatever an organisation might say and attack them for saying something different in years gone by — or in News’s case attack them for not censoring different opinions. So much for diversity.
And of course there is the familiar refrain that whatever has been done, is done or will be done will always be too little too late.
In the case of this highly ambitious project all these claims are at best foolish and at worst simply factually wrong.
Firstly, there was no commercial motivation for Mission Zero and not a single ad can be found in the 16-page special edition that launched the series on Monday.
Secondly, as a media organisation whose lifeblood is the delivery of news and commentary it is fair to say we are not in the business of silencing dissenting views.
And thirdly, if everything is going to be too little too late then why bother doing anything at all?
This last perverse notion is of course the precise attitude that saw the Greens kill off the emissions trading scheme in the first place and the very embodiment of the self-immolating premise than the good should be murdered on the altar of the perfect.
This is the in-built poison pill of one-eyed ideology and the reason why extreme and absolutist behaviour — as exhibited by groups like Extinction Rebellion — serves only to fuel the view among sceptics that the issue is exaggerated, its adherents deranged and that nothing will ever be enough to sate the screaming mob.
Fortunately there is a pantheon of smarter and more sensible minds who are actively engaged in finding practical and positive solutions to the climate challenge rather than just prophesying the planet’s doom.
And I for one am deeply proud and grateful that we have been able to bring them together for this groundbreaking series and share these pathways to Australia’s prosperity, alongside the stories of everyday Australians who just want clarity and reassurance that their jobs and dollars aren’t simply being slipstreamed into a sacrificial queue.
The truth is there is an extremely bright future for Australia and all Australians in a net zero world. Our country, our economy and our capabilities make us the best placed nation on the map to reap the rewards of changes that are coming whether we want them to or not.
So if you want to know who really loves our planet then listen to those stories — not the conspiracy theories of climate catastrophists who are just looking for another reason to hate.
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