Sabra Lane interviews Bernie Fraser, Chairman of the Climate Change Authority on the ABC 7:30 report. She only had time for a few questions. Shame then, to only ask one’s everyone knows the answer to.
Instead of asking Fraser how many dollars each Australian will have to spend to lower global temperatures by one degree Celsius, Sabra Lane asks him about global psychology instead: “On the Renewable Energy Target, there’s a lot of talk about the Government watering it down or getting rid of it. What impact is that having on Australia’s reputation?
What does she think the head of any “authority” dependent on the fear of a carbon-crisis for its existence was going to say? Not much — Sabra, no one overseas cares a lot about what we do?
Fraser proffers the predictable response, just as Sabra Lane surely knew he would. Fraser even tries to sell the idea that the current “uncertainty” is bad for business. Lane buys it. It doesn’t occur to her to mention that it was Gillard who promised Australian business the certainty of a climate committee and then gave them a tax. And it’s Abbott who has said with certainty that he wants to axe-that-tax every day for four years. At no point has Australian business ever had certainty that the tax was coming and was here to stay. By now, any sensible green-business should have seen the end looming for years.
Bernie Fraser is paid to advertise a carbon crisis, and Sabra Lane seems happy to help him, even if that means avoiding the money-questions and asking his opinion of global moods instead. It’s not what we pay the ABC $1 billion dollars a year to do — feed Dorothy Dixers to other government servants — but it does make for good propaganda.