Labor plan sends $35b in jobs and goods overseas. Carbon Tax is dumbest deal of The Century.

Cartoon: If $35b is paid for foreign carbon credits, $35b in Australian jobs will follow.

Where money goes, jobs follow.

Unbeknowst to 99% of Australians, we already have an emissions trading scheme.

Thank Malcolm Turnbull and Clive Palmer.

Soon, Australians are likely to be sending real money overseas and getting back paper certificates at prices set by the EU.

The legislation was snuck through just before Christmas 2015, buried under the name “Safeguard Mechanism”. It cost about $7m in the first year. But sits ticking, ready to blow-up into a billion-dollar monster any day. If Labor is elected, it won’t matter whether it has Senate control or not, the minister can just “press a button”, change the caps, and lo, the money will flow to foreigners for certificates based on intentions about atmospheric nullities — for emissions they might have made but didn’t. We’re paying to change the global weather. We could be the stupidest rich nation on Earth. But really, we’re just not paying attention.

The 35 billion dollars we will spend on these useless, fraudprone certificates is $35 billion we are taking out of the Australian labor market, or not spending on medicine, books or holidays in Bali. Angus Taylor, Minister for Energy, has noticed that this means $10b less tax will be paid too, which means less money for hospitals and schools.

There’s nothing wrong with payments to foreigners for real goods and services. But carbon credits buy us 0.0001C of theoretical cooling we don’t need and won’t be able to measure 100 years from now. It’s the dumbest deal Australia has ever made. Frausters and bankers will love it.

Tony Abbott won 90 seats on a promise to Axe The Carbon Tax in 2013. But, without any election, Australians still got exactly the carbon tax they voted overwhelmingly to stop. It’s one of the biggest lies in politics. It was brought in deceptively and is still being hidden by the Labor-lite unreformed Liberals.  Turnbull finally achieved what Rudd and Gillard tried to do for years, but strangely Turnbull didn’t want to brag about it. He knew the voters would hate it.

ALP carbon credits push risks $10bn tax loss

Simon Benson, The Australian

Company tax deductions for international carbon credits purchased to meet Labor’s climate change ambitions could punch a $10 billion hole in the federal budget over the next 10 years due to the potential loss of tax revenue.

Under Labor’s policy, 250 companies that have emission reduction obligations under an expanded safeguard mechanism would be allowed to purchase domestic and international carbon credits to offset those emissions they could not reduce.

The government claims a conservative estimate of a 25 per cent allowance for international credits based on a carbon price of between $70 and $145 by 2030 would require an estimated $35bn in credits to be purchased by Australian companies over the decade.

This would lead to a loss of tax revenue to the government of $10.5bn based on the current 30 per cent company tax rate that applies to the largest companies.

Independent modeling suggests the 45% emissions target of the Labor party will cost at least $264bn and as high as $542bn by 2030. The Liberal Party will “only” waste  $50 – $80b.

To be a broken record, there are cheaper carbon credits at home (thanks to Abbott666), and they’re only semi-worthless. At least we might improve our soil and add to our forests.

If the Liberals lose this election it’s because they killed off their own best weapon against the Labor Party. Lord help us if the Labor Party win.

Clive could only get my vote if he tells Australians why this tax exists and apologizes profusely, and grovelling for it.

9.5 out of 10 based on 84 ratings

174 comments to Labor plan sends $35b in jobs and goods overseas. Carbon Tax is dumbest deal of The Century.

  • #
    Serp

    And we can’t vote for neither the Lib’s 80 billion nor Lab’s 542 billion; the fix is well and truly in.

    190

    • #
      ColA

      This is a bit of subject but I thought it worth putting it in here, I got this list forwarded to me from my friend;

      What’s wrong with “your ABC?”
      A little homework has come up with the following…
      · Why does the Left media protect the left?
      · Because the political commentators of the Left media are either intermingled or married to the left politicians.
      · It’s a family thing and they protect their own:
      · Greg Combet (Labor) partnered to Juanita Phillips (ABC).
      · Gai Brodtmann (Labor) married to Chris Uhlmann (ABC)
      · David Feeney (Labor) married to Liberty Sanger (guest commentator on ABC)
      · Barry Cassidy (ABC) former speech writer for Bob Hawke (Labor) from 1986-1991
      · Heather Ewart (ABC) married to Barry Cassidy (ABC) speech writer for Bob Hawke (Labor) from 1986-1991
      · Maxine McKew (ABC) married to Bob Hogg (former ALP national secretary)
      · Maxine McKew (ABC) became Labor politician replacing John Howard for one term only.
      · Virginia Trioli (ABC) married to Russell Skelton (The Age)
      · Mark Kenny (Fairfax) married to Virginia Haussegger (ABC)
      · Christine Wallace (ABC & Fairfax) married to Michael Costello (former Chief of Staff to Labor’s Kim Beazley)
      · Annabel Crabb (former Fairfax journalist now with the ABC)
      · Tony Jones (ABC) married to Sarah Ferguson (ABC) Coincidentally Jones took over the Lateline role from Maxine McKew (from ABC presenter to Labor politician)
      · David Penberthy (journalist) married to Kate Ellis (Labor)
      · Paul Kelly (former Fairfax journalist) formerly married to Ros Kelly (Labor)
      · Kerry O’Brien (ABC) former press secretary to Gough Whitlam.
      · Mark Colvin (ABC) married to Michelle McKenzie (Leichhardt deputy-mayor and Greens Councillor)
      · Denis Atkins (ABC Insiders regular) married to Melanie Christensen (ABC Canberra)
      · Paul Barry (ABC) married to Lisa McGregor (ABC)
      · The lamentable Mike Carlton (formerly Fairfax) partners Morag Ramsay (ABC)
      · Andrew Fraser (Fairfax) and Catriona Jackson (formerly Fairfax and Labor press secretary)
      · And so the list goes on.
      Labor, Fairfax and the ABC are joined at the hip.
      Much like the relationship between Labor and the unions.

      Besides, they’re on YOUR TAX payroll.

      250

  • #
    Latus Dextro

    The Green Death: de-industrialisation, de-population, and destitution.
    While all the virtue-signalling carbon handwaving is taking place, the globalists and the Left have seized your seemingly braindead country. Good luck with that.

    China’s Big Brother Social Control Goes to Australia

    Australia is preparing to debut its version of the Chinese regime’s high-tech system for monitoring and controlling its citizens. The launch, to take place in the northern city of Darwin, will include systems to monitor people’s activity via their cell phones.

    The new system is based on monitoring programs in Shenzhen, China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is testing its Social Credit System. Officials on the Darwin council traveled to Shenzhen, according to NT News, to “have a chance to see exactly how their Smart Technology works prior to being fully rolled out.”

    In Darwin, they’ve already constructed “poles, fitted with speakers, cameras and Wi-Fi,” according to NT News, to monitor people, their movements around the city, the websites they visit, and what apps they use. The monitoring will be done mainly by artificial intelligence, but will alert authorities based on set triggers.

    Just as in China, the surveillance system is being branded as a “smart city” program, and while Australian officials claim its operations are benign, they’ve announced it functions to monitor cell phone activity and “virtual fences” that will trigger alerts if people cross them.

    170

    • #
      ivan

      That sounds like the first implementation of the slave camps sustainable cities as outlined in the UN Agenda 21 and added to in Agenda 30. So much for freedom.

      140

      • #

        It’s well underway, Ivan.

        Smart Cities in the name of Sustainable Development blue-print of the United Nations Agenda 21 and brain child of the Trilateral Commission for a globalist New World Order run by technocrat elites, i.e.themselves.

        http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/New_World_Order/Trilateral_UsurpSovereign.html

        The term ‘sustainable development’ was coined by Trilateral Commission member, Gru Brundtland, chair person of the UN Brundtland Commission that led to the Rio Earth Summit and the creation of Agenda 21. The 400 plus pages Agenda 21 Policy is a detailed regulatory program to:
        # transfer government from national entities to rule by top down technocrat elites,
        # abolish private property and move people off the land into surveillance cities where citizens’ actions are closely monitored.
        # take-over exclusive management of wild lands resources as no-go zones for citizens,
        #control K-12 education as values-indoctrination to support their globalist agenda.

        131

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          The more you understand about technology the more you know how to wreck it! Lay it on.

          20

      • #
        glen Michel

        I take a dim view about all of this. I have spent most of my life being relatively unalarmed until now. Crash and burn is coming. Sauve qui peut!!

        90

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          If it gets really bad, we will leave.

          Why live in an open air prison?

          40

          • #
            Annie

            To go where, Steve?

            50

            • #
              Latus Dextro

              Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia,Spain, Italy.
              Take your pick.
              The secular Globalista have sequestered Australia and New Zealand.
              Elsewhere, a new conservative age is rising.

              50

              • #
                RickWill

                The key factor impacting on quality of life in Australia is immigration. It is stressing infrastructure and services. In contrast, some EU countries have declining populations. Both Spain and Italy are giving away land in derelict villages to revive them. This is one example:
                https://www.thelocal.es/20140309/abandoned-spanish-villages-given-away-for-free

                Reducing population is highly deflationary so look for places that allow you in that have ageing demographic and no grand plan to repopulate with immigration.

                41

            • #
              Peter C

              To go where, Steve?

              I suggest the Hutt River Province.

              Prince Leonard died, but he likely had an heir and successor.

              30

          • #
            WXcycles

            And go where Steve? This global socialist attempt to remove all free-speech and control, suppress, oppress, coerce and force people to do things which they do not believ in or agree with on the basis of evidence, is everywhere now within the West. Civil conflict will occur, and then the real geeenie-socialist clamp-down will start … ’cause ‘security’. Apparently humans are much too dangerous to have their own thoughts and money, so freedom and modernity will have to be eliminated to save us from our original-Sins, of owning stuff, building a better world, using coal, being white (white women are OK but only as long as their ‘partner’ is anything but white or male) and thoroughly detesting the ABC and everything it represents.

            91

            • #
              OriginalSteve

              This mught sound odd, but europe, but skip around a bit for a while.

              I suspect Australians eventually will have had a gutful, which take a few years of ” disappearances” and brutal crackdowns, they will throw the globalists thier lackies out of the country.

              The first Australian to be gunned down by foreign UN “peacekeeping” troops in this country will unleash complete hell upon them which few peoples can duplicate like Australians. Tech or no tech, you cant lock up a whole population…..

              40

              • #
                glen Michel

                Ahh but are we the same.One can say that national integrity is the only hope; pride without being overtly aggressive(if only). My relatives used to comment that the 30s in Germany were wonderful times with less than 1% unemployment in 1938 and a national vivacity that was lacking in other countries.Such energy wasted in the pursuit of evil outcomes.

                50

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                I’ d agree the national pride, which after all is just pulling together as a nation for the betterment of your neighbour, has to be for the common good.

                The americans call such a thing being a patriot, the Leftist MSM would paint such a thought as “unclean”, but if you boiled it all down to a local level, its just you and your neighbour looking out for each other.

                The other point is that patriotism isnt agressive or outward looking, nor should it be.

                20

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Yes.
          I’ve had a very uncomfortable, uneasy feeling the last week.
          A nation can’t thrive on dishonesty.

          70

        • #
          sophocles

          Then, glen Michel, and everybody else here, help Monkton out: and complain to the Swiss police about the IPCC’s failure(s) (it’s that `f*a*d’ word again!) All details of how to do is included by Lord Christopher Monkton in this video.
          [
          Now I understand where this suddenly proclaimed so-called Climate Crisis has come from: perhaps the writing has appeared on the wall.
          It’s our turn now! 🙂
          So let’s add to their panic …

          20

    • #
      el gordo

      Those who ditch their phones will still need to occasionally look at their hand, so that the general surveillance doesn’t catch him acting unnaturally.

      Thanks Latus, they already own the port, so I imagine that is where the Belt and Road will begin.

      80

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        e.g. Haven’t worn a watch since I was 18 yet still look at my left wrist to gauge how many freckles past a hair it is and thankfully people notice (clasping their mobile like it’s a packet of ciggies or a teddy bear or something more intimate). That big bright yellow round thing in the sky is my timepiece and I’m usually within 5-minutes’ accuracy (besides, ssshhh, I do have a work phone stashed away for emergencies).

        Caught a bus into and back from the city today (usually drive to the ferry but today was gonna be a late finish so went public) ugh! EVERYONE had their faces buried in their phones, coughing and hacking like zombie city workers as I stared out the window at the new crescent moon setting into a fading purple sky over a shimmering rippled harbour… and the ‘general surveillance’ cams were EVERYWHERE throughout the bus… to make one feel safe… I guess.

        Re: Darwin, I thought Barry Soetoro’s minders set it up as the 53rd (or 54th?) state a few years back, big military/airbase/troops/whatever, no?

        40

        • #
          el gordo

          Barry Soetoro was keen to stem the Chinese advance, but Donald made us the deputy in the South Pacific and that is pretty much the end of the matter.

          I’ve been thinking of moving to Darwin, cheap as chips, but its so hot and humid I’m getting cold feet.

          10

  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    Jo says:

    We could be the stupidest rich nation on Earth

    Yes we could be. We will soon find out.

    If we are then it’s only a matter of time before we are the stupidest poor nation on Earth.

    Brian Fisher’s analysis of the economic impact of the Labor Party’s Climate Change policy should frighten the bejesus out of all Australian voters. And the Liberals are complicit. They selected Turnbull – a classic Manchurian candidate of the socialist greens.

    321

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Carbon credits – the new & worthless junk bonds…..buying nothing – for a fortune…..

      Every time I hear of climate change, I take the malingerer who has spouted it to task…..they usually turn tail & run….

      120

      • #
        PeterPetrum

        The problem is, Steve, that they refuse to listen. The number of people who go purple faced and scream “I don’t want to discuss it!” when you ask them if they know what is causing the, so called, global warming, or whether they know that CO2 is only 1 part in 10,000 and anyway is an essential plant food that keeps this planet ticking, is really scary. They just do not want to hear anything that their groupthink has told them to dismiss.

        Sadly, both of my own daughters (one a world famous astrophysicist) are captured by this groupthink and I just cannot discuss it anymore.

        70

    • #
      Latus Dextro

      …frighten the bejesus out of all Australian voters

      Sadly, it’s impossible to do when they’ re sleep walking comfortably to their doom.
      I guess you could ditch your smart phones (and addiction to social media) but then again, refusing to play will likely diminish your social credit score and you may find it difficult to buy anything to eat or drink or to travel anywhere.
      I predict the inevitable development of an unter-culture , one that is essentially off the grid.

      100

  • #
    George4

    If Labor wins it will be a disaster for our government debt.
    Already forecast to be $629 billion in 2019.
    They babble on about the climate we are creating for our grandchildren.
    What we really should be worried about is having our grandchildren inherit a monster debt and interest payments.

    242

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      They’re not interested in debt, they just want power, more power, more agenda.

      10

  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    Independent modeling suggests the 45% emissions target of the Labor party will cost at least $264bn and as high as $542bn by 2030. The Liberal Party will “only” waste $50 – $80b.

    Yes.

    For those who take these matters seriously, Brian Fisher’s analysis is available here:

    http://www.baeconomics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Economic-Consequences-of-Labors-Climate-Change-Action-Plan-1May19.pdf

    Yes I know I posted it on the other thread (today), however this is serious. So I’m posting it again.

    211

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    The video is in Jonova’s link, but worth a reminder …

    25 June, 2014: Al Gore joins Clive Palmer to back emissions trading scheme for Australia

    https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/al-gore-joins-clive-palmer-to-back-emissions/5550692

    Palmer is no Trump.

    110

  • #
    PeterS

    Yes let’s see how dumb Australians are. If Australia elects ALP+Greens to be the next government then Australia will have to be the dumbest lot of the whole world. This is especially so since the rest of the world are building hundreds of new coal fired power stations that would make out pathetic effort of trying to save the climate by shutting down our tiny number look as stupid and as useless as a windmill on a submarine.

    160

  • #
    robert rosicka

    When it all falls in a heap and our new owners show up I’d just like to say ” I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords” .

    60

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    Under this system we in Australia are Blessed.

    On any reckoning, among the major Developed Nations we have a huge carbon advantage.

    We have more green open growth area per head of population than any other nation.

    The carbon sequestration that takes place in our nation is unbelievable and if our politicians got off their seats and balanced things properly we could ask for payments from other countries, significant payments.

    We deserve better representation but will only get it if we all stand up , remove the nose rings, and act like a free nation should.

    Determinedly!!!

    No carbon Taxes, unless they go our way.

    KK

    130

    • #
      Bobl

      Made this point recently to Malcolm Roberts who was unaware thatvour nett emissions are -1.5 gt per annum relative to 1990. He was very interested.

      One Nation want to build the Bradfield scheme (modified) to divert tropical rain inland to irrigate more of Australia as well as expanding the Ord Scheme and possibly the Gascoyne river in WA. The resulting increases in vegetation from that would offset all our emissions and will exceed all renewable energy savings (assuming there are any ) many times over.

      That’s real nation building.

      151

      • #
        glen Michel

        I am in two minds about resurrecting Bradfield’s concept. I have taken a life-long interest in the Darling river and its northern tributaries in particular.I have seen the proliferation of irrigation projects(I worked on early operations in the early 1970s) over the 40 odd years and can only note the deterioration of the Namoi,Gwydir and Barwon rivers from extended periods of high water flows.On the other hand recognise and appreciate the economic benefits.THe concern I have is how much insertion of human economic activity has on the natural system.

        50

        • #
          pattoh

          & there is ALWAYS the risk of rising water tables in [ currently dry + evaporite laden* ] soils which dry land irrigation will stimulate.

          Dry Land Salinity can be a massive party pooper.

          * Never lose sight of the slope of the “Dry Land” in Central Australia e.g Bourke is a long way up the Darling BUT ~~ 90m above sea level. The flat country is a very old landform.

          50

          • #
            glen Michel

            I am looking at a crop of dryland Cotton near Narrabri northern NSW, that has endured months of no rain and continuous 40C temperatures and is about to be harvested. Astounding.

            70

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Sounds interesting.

        30

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        ‘to divert tropical rain inland to irrigate more of Australia ‘ very good idea.

        30

  • #
    Michael Reed

    So Australia has managed to avoid a recession over the last 30 years -doesn’t that
    sound great ! Well let’s look at future (and it ain’t bright)after the inevitable election of a Shorten Labor
    government.Australia’s national debt in 2020 will be somewhere between 600 to 700
    billion dollars and then consider where it will go after the following things kick in .Lets now examine what the Fisher report said in round terms 350000
    extra unemployed,a $9000 per annum loss in average wages ,again increases to energy/power
    prices probably 50 to 100 percent .These impacts will happen as a result of the increased effect
    of the RET on energy generation but now the extra huge negative effects will be a hit to the
    agriculture and transport sectors of the economy -talk about how hobble and handicap a western
    economy-we’ll to me that’s the perfect recipe for doing just that .After these effects start to kick
    in then guess what then happens ?? You got it -lower GDP and an increased national debt and then a down grade by Moodies of our national credit rating followed by more
    government borrowings at greater interest rates .And all of this because of a gullible public
    believing in three phrases presented by both sides of politics and vested interests of crony capitalists and the MSM ie “climate change” ,”Paris Agreement “and “carbon emissions “
    and all of this insanity based on an original unverified conjecture called global warming
    Cheers Mike Reed

    120

    • #
      WXcycles

      Neo Robin-Hood syndrome at work, steal from the rich to give to the poor.

      Labor ‘costed it’ and apparently it’s budget-neutral.

      All good once again!

      30

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    If a regulator enforces rules based on something that cant be proven as real scientifically, how would it go in court?

    If a company took a huge financial hit over govt regulatory enforcement for what in effect amounts to a myth, could the said govt body be sued out of existence for later losses incurred when said myth proven to be a myth…in court?

    Could make for a very deck-chair-and-popcorn moment…..

    Truly cringe-worthy stuff.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/legally-forseeable-regulators-warn-companies-on-climate-change-risks-20190508-p51l9d.html

    “Company boards and large investors are under pressure from Australia’s financial regulators to ramp up disclosures and take stronger action on long-term risks posed by climate change which they say are now “legally forseeable” across many industries.”

    “Senior officials from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) on Wednesday said the effects of climate change no longer presented merely ethical issues for Australian businesses but must be considered a major financial risk.”

    40

    • #
      John in Oz

      Would the pundits of CAGW have to re-word their predictions to remove ‘could/may/possibly/fairly sure/etc’, otherwise a company can claim they read the predictions and were not convinced that disaster would result from their decisions as the ‘data’ was not 100% reliable.

      50

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    The problem is the one party with two faces, which has been forced upon us. Bring on the independants I say!

    97

    • #
      AndyG55

      ” Bring on the independants I say!”

      You mean the other Green left-wing anti-CO2 party?

      141

      • #
        AndyG55

        the one sponsored by GetUp and Soros.?

        The one positioned somewhere to the left of the Labor party and with only one policy, that of nation-destroying cow-towing to the climate farce.

        131

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        I want to elect a representative that places the electorate first, party second. At the moment, policy is decided by the ‘faceless men’, there is no real debate at either the party or electorate level. This is not how I think democracy should work

        83

        • #
          el gordo

          Democracy has always been a bit of a shambles, we inherited the Westminster system from mother England and look how they are managing.

          The power brokers in the major parties determine strategy and the whip keeps them in order, it works. With the senate acting as back stop it should offer political stability.

          31

          • #
            theRealUniverse

            Remember the original Westminster system was hardly voting rights for anybody except the establishment aristocracy, wealthy land owning males only until after 1910, roughly.

            40

            • #
              el gordo

              In Australia the ‘sqattocracy’ held sway for a long time, but by the 1890s we see the beginnings of a socialist movement at state level and in 1901 Labor was recognised federally.

              During the economic depression of the 1890s there was a blooming of the arts as we searched for a national identity.

              20

            • #
              PeterW.

              The universal franchise is the result of over 2000 years of development in political and moral thought. Every system has its origins in despotic feudalism if you take it back far enough.

              What we refer to as the Westminster system is the product of several Civil Wars, at least one peaceful “revolution” and centuries of political debate and campaigning. To casually dismiss it without regard for the fact that it has come to the point of universal voting – and the paucity of alternatives giving superior results – shows insufficient respect for history.

              30

            • #
              PeterW.

              To add….
              The problem is not the “System”, but the voters.

              It was the recognition that any such system would be abused by a majority (willing to allow their votes to be bought with cash and prizes) that motivated much of the desire to restrict voting to those who had little to gain by such behavior – If only because they already had both the cash and the property.

              Those with a historical bent will understand that this was one of the factors in the downfall of the Athenian and Roman Republics, despite the fact that neither slaves nor women had the vote..

              No system will perform well while the majority of voters are more self-interested than patriotic, and more emotional than informed.

              40

          • #
            Another Ian

            If you read “Rusted Off” you’ll find mention of Albie Schultz who “had no ambition to be a minister and thus could say what he liked”.

            Not many like that.

            30

    • #
      MudCrab

      Two faced party? Those faces have names, Peter.

      One face is named Bill, and the other is Richard.

      20

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    Carbon trading and CO2 are sooooo yesterday.

    Now we are required to worry about the impending climate change extinction.

    An apocalypse, I tells ya – An apocalypse!

    110

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    Jo I missed something.
    What did Clive Palmer have to do with it ?
    Bill

    12

    • #

      Suddenly, after Gore visited it was Clive who said he would only agree to end the Gillard carbon tax if the Climate Change authority stayed and if Abbott put in a clause saying we would get carbon trading if the rest of the world did.

      http://joannenova.com.au/2014/07/will-australia-get-carbon-trading-the-palmer-and-al-gore-paradox-goes-on/

      Palmer is offering to vote for Tony Abbott’s Direct Action Plan as long as he gets “his” Emissions Trading Scheme as well (the one he didn’t want eight weeks ago, to solve a problem he didn’t believe existed).

      None of it makes sense on its face. Clive Palmer, the coal miner and die-hard unbeliever, appears to “want” an ETS, the Climate Change Authority, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and direct action to reduce CO2 as well as the RET. (And some say that Gore lost?)

      Is Palmer just playing games with both the Coalition and the media, holding cards for negotiation-sake, and messing with journalist’s heads? It could be. But until we see the fine print on the legislation (and all the other deals), we can assume the loser of the Gore-Palmer paradox was neither Gore nor Palmer, but the Australian taxpayer.

      Abbott will find it hard to knock back a deal to bring in “Direct Action”, after having campaigned for so long to get it working. Especially if the ETS is sold as a dead duck at zero dollars and only on the condition that Japan, South Korea, China, Australian and the US all start emissions trading. How could he turn that down?

      At the time, a lot of people said it was a symbolic silly clause, but then Paris was rejigged so that just turning up was enough say “China signed”, and thus the clause was met. Palmer made sure there was a back door. There wouldn’t have been one without him.

      212

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Thanks Jo for that explanation.
        I am bamboozled by Palmer
        He seems to think he can play on both sides of the table.
        And not be thought a joke.
        Ummmmm
        But actually that is what
        Many Liberals have been doing as well.

        101

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Palmer is simply using the ideas of the sceptical right that have been developed during the past decade and spread over the internet.

          He holds no alliance to but himself and is a narcissistic shyster of the highest order.

          120

      • #
        Peter C

        From the UAP website.

        Things Clive himself said he did, and appears to be proud of;

        • Made 15 changes to Direct Action in Senate
        Amendments then passed Direct Action.
        • Saved the Climate Change Authority.
        • Saved the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
        • Saved ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy
        Authority).
        • Saved RET (Renewable Energy Target).
        https://www.unitedaustraliaparty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Vision-for-Australia-June-2015.pdf

        80

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        I thought uncle Clive would only vote for what could make him more bucks..especially a CO2 trading scheme.

        30

      • #
        Alice Thermopolis

        “Clive could only get my vote if he tells Australians why this tax exists and apologizes profusely, and grovelling for it.”

        What an irony if Clive Palmer emerges as kingmaker this month.

        In mid-winter 2014, two high-net-worth foul-weather chaps appeared together unexpectedly in the Great Hall of Parliament House. They spoke for 11 minutes about saving the world from a “climate crisis” and then zipped off to dinner.

        How did Albert Arnold Gore – 45th Vice-President of the United States (1993–2001), joint Nobel Laureate 2007 (for “peace”, not climate science) – spiritual leader of the climate-calamity movement, patron saint of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) alarmism – come to team up with Mr Palmer and torpedo Tony Abbott’s plans to shut down agencies like the CEFC?

        As to what caused Mr Palmer’s “road to Damascus conversion on climate change” in 2014, Tony Jones asked him this question on Lateline.

        Tony Jones: I’m still trying to get my head around how much you’ve changed in the matter of two or three months. When I asked you, back in April, about the consensus of scientific experts, you said, “I can get a group of scientists together and pay them whatever I want to come up with any solution.” What actually changed your mind here? It can’t have been half an hour with Al Gore in your office today.

        For the answer, go to: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2014/07/al-clives-alvation/

        As for Al, the board of CEDA have just invited him back to speak alongside the Queensland premier on 7 June. Corporate Australia capitulates and turns a darker shade of green. Wow.

        Ominous news for the Adani project. Is the state government bringing Gore in to behead the project, together with (possibly) Labor in Canberra, as well as trying win crucial marginal seats on 18 May.

        Did Turnbull have a hand in arranging this event, or was it Palmersaurus rex?

        Speakers
        Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and 45th Vice President of the United States of America
        The Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier of Queensland and Minister for Trade

        Event overview
        With keynote addresses from Al Gore and Queensland Premier the Hon. Annastacia Palaszczuk, CEDA’s network comes together at the conclusion of Climate Week QLD 2019, to better understand the impacts of climate change and to hear what action individuals, governments and the societies they serve are taking to deliver improved environmental and economic outcomes for future generations.

        Climate Week QLD 2019 will identify urgent and effective actions that will deliver prosperous industries, businesses and communities for Queensland and protect our environment and culture

        40

  • #
    • #
      graham dunton

      let us hold him to it Bill, it least that would be a worthwhile contribution.

      50

      • #

        Without dogged media support how could we hold him to any of his promises?

        We have no chance.

        Anyone tempted by Palmer would be wise to send their preferences to other minor parties first. We can’t trust the man to do anything he says. Which is a damn shame given how badly any non-left minor party needs financial support.

        110

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          But Jo what to say to pensioners
          Doing it hard
          With Clive telling them
          He will increase pensions
          By $150 a week ?

          31

    • #
      glen Michel

      Yeah and I want to build a replica of the Bismarck in my back yard. How can one trust this duplicitous nong.

      100

      • #
        glen Michel

        That being said: BIsmarck for PM!

        40

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Much superior to our current choices, intelligent, tough, decisive and above all dead so no sudden thought bubbles posing as policy.
          And he won the 3 wars he started.

          60

          • #
            glen Michel

            I wouldn’t agree to him starting the conflict with France. Each way my ancestry is Alsace/Rhineland area.Frank or Alemanni ??

            10

          • #
            MudCrab

            Bismarck didn’t technically start the war with France.

            He just politely asked the French to declare war on him and then took advantage of the situation.

            Bismarck, probably more than any other political figure before or since, understood Clausewitz theory in that war is politics. Bismarck went to war (or got France to go to war) with a set objective in mind. Start war, fight war, win battle, offer terms. The idea of ‘you and who’s army?’ was very literal in foreign policy negations and also meant that because both sides knew why they were fighting, the wars could be ‘relatively’ short, the trick being to not get greedy when offering terms so that the losing side considered that they had lots the war fair and square and didn’t start clamouring for justice.

            The problem with this sort of success is that everyone started to think they could do it and also forgot that if you goto war without an objective (other than total defeat of your enemy) then you have no exit. Come 1914 we had a political situation where everyone was happy to go to war with each other because recent history had taught them that wars were quick, relatively free from wide spread destruction and also a completely valid way of solving international problems.

            And yeah, that ended badly.

            But, getting back to the topic at hand, building a 1:1 scale model of Bismarck would still be a more effective use of time and money than placing a 1 next to anyone associated politically with Clive Palmer.

            60

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      Clive is a builder …

      Clive Palmer’s Titanic II cruise ship now set for 2022 launch date

      http://www.traveller.com.au/clive-palmers-titanic-ii-cruise-ship-now-set-for-2022-launch-date-h16zb7

      30

      • #
        MudCrab

        Bob is also a builder.

        Your link is dated Oct 2018 and filled with ‘plans’.

        If this ship is really to be launched in 2022 I would assumed that steel has already been cut or at the very least a shipyard awarded the contract… which would be something exciting you could put in a press release, right?

        30

  • #
    Gerry, England

    The UK is trying to catch up in the dumb stakes. We have a parliament full of morons already. And we have the same problem at elections – nobody to vote for. I haven’t voted for years as there is no conservative party and our democracy is a sham anyway.

    111

  • #

    The Labor Party drank the full bottle of Kool-Aid while the Liberals just had a quick swig, but either way the results are ruinous for the country and will lead to failures and misery and no change in the climate or weather.

    130

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Minor edit Nick
      ” Some of the Liberals ”
      Many didn’t but are staying quiet about it
      hoping it will just go away.

      30

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        It’s sort of like
        ‘Transubstantiation’
        Was for Christian sects
        in the 16th century.
        A deadly hot air ballon
        Thought bubble
        That signified
        Everything & Nothing

        11

  • #
    Bobl

    He’s proud of it, it’s on his website

    https://www.unitedaustraliaparty.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Palmer-Utd-Achievements.pdf

    He boasts

    Saved the climate change authority
    Saved the clean energy finance corporation
    Saved ARENA ( Australian Renewable Energy Authority )
    Saved RET ( Renewable Energy Target )

    Only viable party opposing this is One Nation. ACP is strangely quiet, at least here in Perth. Known Sceptics in QLD Senate Malcolm Roberts, Ian MacDonald, Matt Canavan. We know in NSW that Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott are suppressed sceptics. We should all share any knowledge we have about suppressed sceptics in all parties. There must be sceptics in Labor too, hidden deep down.

    To defend ourselves and the rest of the public we should all make sure that the Senate is at least hostile to passing any AGW waste. I’m backing One Nation as the strongest conservative party opposing this waste. They have solid Pro Australia policies that aren’t actually very right wing at all. They are just patriotic pro Aussie, and yes, populist as in they tour their constituencies actually listening to what their constituents want. I fail to see why populist as in doing what the public wants is bad or undemocratic!

    90

  • #
    graham dunton

    All a big con of course, a total scam, we are all being taxed on CO2 as a perceived pollutant, when it is the life blood of our existence.

    Carbon taxes are a wrought, so scrap the lot,

    70

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Spot the delusion……

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/britain-goes-a-week-without-coal-power-saying-this-is-the-new-normal-20190509-p51lgy.html

    “London: Britain’s electricity grid has gone an entire week without burning coal for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

    “And the country’s grid operator says this will be “the new normal” – and mean lower power prices for consumers.

    “The last coal generator went offline at 1.24pm on Wednesday May 1, local time. Since then Britain got by on 46 per cent natural gas, 21 per cent nuclear, just under 10 per cent from overseas connectors and more than 16 per cent from wind, solar and hydro.

    “Last year, coal provided 10 per cent of the country’s power. As recently as 2013, coal powered more than a third of the British grid.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/headlong-into-potential-disaster-coal-remains-king-in-this-country-20190508-p51l3o.html

    “As elections approach on May 18, polls suggest that Labor leader Bill Shorten may have the advantage over Morrison’s conservative government, with energy and the environment a key political dividing line.

    “‘We haven’t done this before’: Pro-coal activists hit the streets to spruik mining

    “Yet there’s a limit to how far Shorten is willing to antagonise the coal industry. For even in the world’s driest inhabited continent, the imperatives of boosting revenue and economic growth are trumping concerns about the negative effects of man-made climate change.

    “Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter, and the Galilee Basin will help decide whether it holds on to that status. The Morrison government has been full-throated in its backing for Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s plan to open up the Galilee with his Carmichael mine.

    “Shorten has been less forthcoming. He is stuck between his party’s traditional support of the mining industry and members of parliament representing inner-city districts in Sydney and Melbourne who are against Carmichael on environmental grounds. Repeatedly pressed to clarify his stance during the campaign, the Labor leader remains ambivalent.

    61

  • #
    TimiBoy

    I’ve been saying it for a long time. Things will need to get much worse before they can get better, the burnt hand teaches best.

    Bring Bill on, let’s get the stove turned on, and get out the burn cream. Get it done with already.

    110

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Trouble is that so much of the damage and graft from both sides is hidden from public view and false issues, like CAGW, are introduced to distract.

      The “school shelters” and “roofing insulation” are examples of “transfer” to specific target groups.
      Windmills and photovoltaic electricity transfers are more bipartisan.

      Getting the true story out to the public is not easy and overcoming the media push to feature an interview with a university professor every half hour to inform us about the state of the world, is not helping.

      KK

      70

  • #
    Another Ian

    Not only Brian Fisher

    “The Trouble With Carbon Taxes: Lessons For Asian Policymakers”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/08/the-trouble-with-carbon-taxes-lessons-for-asian-policymakers/

    40

  • #
    Another Ian

    Background

    “Levin Interviews Dr. Patrick Michaels On Climate”

    “Fourteen minutes well spent that shows how wrong the “Climate Models” are, and why that matters to all of us due to the EPA “Endangerment Finding” being based 100% on those broken models.”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/levin-interviews-dr-patrick-michaels-on-climate/

    50

  • #
    Gazman

    I said to a mate back in 2007 when Rudd was elected that God had taken His hand of blessing off Australia.
    Not many readers here may believe in any of that but I still hold to my view, and we are seeing what happens when we turn our back on values of honesty and integrity in government. We reward the political elites. We can expect no different from them when they merely reflect the values of the general society over which they govern.

    131

  • #
  • #
    • #
      Another Ian

      You can help by voting in that poll btw, but you can’d do “early and often”

      20

  • #
    Another Ian

    The banking sector’s motto on this

    “Per Ardua Ad Asbestos”

    (F**k you Jack, I’m fireproof)

    40

  • #
    Graham Richards

    Could someone please provide an accurate, feasible & above all honest explanation on who gets the $35 BILLION & what the $35 BILLION is used for. May I also be so impertinent as to also get a full breakdown of all the benefits that Australia will receive from whoever banks the $35 BILLION, besides having to pay double or more $$$ for our energy??
    I’m sure the “leader” of the opposition has all the numbers at his fingertips.
    Mr Editor please seek his council.

    60

  • #
    Dennis

    It amazes me that there are still people with sympathy for former PM Turnbull, his mission when he became a Liberal MP was to get rid of the Liberal Party and National Party. He stacked Liberal branches in the Wentworth electorate and managed to get rid of the sitting Liberal MP, Peter King, and become the candidate and then MP for Wentworth. The history after that is well documented and I will provide the link.

    And today the Party of Independents has been created to get rid of as many true Liberal and National MPs as possible at the 2019 federal election to create a single powerful governing party consisting of the Union controlled Labor Party, Greens and their Independent candidates supported by GetUp and supporters with financial interests in renewable energy and other investment opportunities based on the man made global warming by carbon dioxide climate change hoax. And including foreign globalist socialists.

    Bill Shorten has already mentioned that if Labor form government they will hold a plebiscite to ask voters if they would support a republic if another referendum was held. The republic, Australian Republican Movement, is another Turnbull related political movement and aimed at changing the Australian Constitution. In the link this is covered in detail, including his (and many others) determination to change the Australian Constitution to remove the many inconvenient constitutional law items that too many politicians dislike. They want more power.

    I have already voted and in the Senate I chose two former and one serving in reserve Australian Defence Force people: Liberal Molan, Australian Conservatives York and
    Bosi.

    80

  • #
    Dennis

    At this link there are numerous stories that explain the trouble we are now facing because of political manoeuvring …

    https://web.archive.org/web/20180804162425/http://stopturnbull.com/

    30

  • #
    Dennis

    And this link that was posted here by MEM recently, read the quotes and who made them …

    http://www.green-agenda.com

    40

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    During a Brutal Polar Blast set to Envelope the Entire Australian Continent, Electricity Bill Shorten tries to sell the insane idea that warm weather might kill us all …

    https://electroverse.net/its-a-big-one-polar-blast-set-to-envelope-the-entire-continent-of-australia/

    80

  • #
    Drapetomania

    OriginalSteve
    May 9, 2019 at 6:00 am · Reply
    Spot the delusion……
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/britain-goes-a-week-without-coal-power-saying-this-is-the-new-normal-20190509-p51lgy.html
    “London: Britain’s electricity grid has gone an entire week without burning coal for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

    Yes..the herald was being mendacious..by omission.As usual.
    The real headline should have been.

    “Fossil fuels from natural gas provided 59.65% of energy.
    Nuclear..19.63 %
    Wind (which is subsidised by the punters of course) at 7,42%”

    https://cliscep.com/2019/05/07/fossil-foolish-at-the-bbc/

    70

    • #
      DaleC

      Coal has been minimal and often near zero since 2016, especially over the UK summer.
      Wind was near zero at end April19/start May19.

      I’ve done up a draft set of charts which break down the UK Demand and supply sources.

      http://redcentresoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/GridwatchUK_Demand_and_Supply.pdf

      Control/click to open in a new browser window.

      I’m grappling with what all this means, so any comments from those in the know welcome.
      If you are interested in Coal, start from the first chart.
      If wind, start from the last chart.

      40

  • #
    pat

    all over the FakeNewsMSM:

    8 May: Guardian: US is hotbed of climate change denial, major global survey finds
    Exclusive: Out of 23 big countries, only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia had higher proportion of doubters
    by Oliver Milman in New York and Fiona Harvey
    The US is a hotbed of climate science denial when compared with other countries, with international polling finding a significant number of Americans do not believe human-driven climate change is occurring.
    A total of 13% of Americans polled in a 23-country survey conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project (LINK) agreed with the statement that the climate is changing “but human activity is not responsible at all”. A further 5% said the climate was not changing…

    But despite these views, the great majority of US citizens do accept the science of climate change, with nearly four in 10 saying human activity was at least partly responsible, potentially with other factors, and a further third taking the stronger view that human activity is the dominant cause…

    But wider denial of climate science is down to a concerted campaign of misinformation by fossil fuel interests and aspects of American character, according to Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist who founded the advocacy group Climate Mobilization.

    “The Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry have put billions of dollars into lying to the American public, even sending literature to science teachers in schools,” Salamon said. “They are so well organised and have managed to turn climate change into a controversial subject that gets shut down. It’s clearly working.
    “There is also the issue of American individualism, remnants of manifest destiny, that don’t set us up well for understanding that we are part of the web of life. The American dream is quite self-involved. We need a new American dream.”…

    ***Americans also appear unusually prone to climate-related conspiracy theories, the YouGov data suggests. A total of 17% of those polled agreed that “the idea of manmade global warming is a hoax that was invented to deceive people”…

    Belief in this conspiracy theory, which was previously invoked by Donald Trump, who falsely claimed climate change was made up by China, increases with age and also conservative political ideology. A total of 52% of Americans who described themselves as “very rightwing” to YouGov insisted global warming was a hoax…
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/07/us-hotbed-climate-change-denial-international-poll

    ***above article brought to you by the 3-year-long, never-ending, TrumpRussiaCollusion conspiracy theorist publication, The Guardian.

    as bad or worse, from Murdoch-owned, generally pro-Trump, NY Post.
    wow! YouGov/Cambridge found people who don’t even believe climate changes:

    8 May: NY Post: America’s denial of climate change is heating up: global survey
    By Marisa Dellatto
    The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, which surveyed the 23 largest countries in the world, found that 13 percent of Americans believe that the climate is changing — but humans are not to blame. Five percent of people do not think the climate is changing at all…

    Contrary to their beliefs, humans are one of the main causes of global warming, something scientists say is very much threatening the planet. According to a United Nations report released this week, 1 million species of plants and animals are facing extinction because of humans. Earlier this month, the UN climate chief reported a looming “catastrophe,” saying that we have 12 years to curb carbon emissions until we reach “a point of no return.”…
    More than half of the people who described themselves as “very right-wing” do not believe in climate change. This isn’t a total surprise, considering President Donald Trump has publicly tweeted that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.
    https://nypost.com/2019/05/08/americas-denial-of-climate-change-is-heating-up-global-survey/

    Marisa is an entertainment writer:

    Tweet: Marisa Dellatto, Features reporter @nypost / @ecjourn grad ‘17 / @bostonglobemag, @bostonglobe & @bostondotcom alum / Can you tell that I’m from Boston?
    I hate to do this, but to quote Charlie the Unicorn: SHUN THE NONBELIEVERS
    (links to her NY Post story)
    8 May 2019
    https://twitter.com/MarisaDellatto/status/1126203297164087298

    20

    • #
      pat

      aha! it’s really the ***GUARDIAN YouGov Cambridge globalism project! keep in mind YouGov now owns Newspoll:

      2 May: Guardian: What is the Guardian YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project?
      New annual survey explores attitudes on subjects from food to immigration in 23 countries
      by Paul Lewis and Pamela Duncan
      The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project is a new survey conducted annually in 23 of the world’s biggest countries, exploring populism, globalisation and attitudes on topics ranging from food, travel and technology to immigration, cultural beliefs and the environment. The Guardian helped YouGov pollsters and University of Cambridge academics at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy to design the survey, and is exclusively releasing the findings.

      The 2019 project surveyed 25,325 people in February and March across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. This year’s findings are being published in association with the Guardian’s The new populism series.

      Countries/samples
      ***The surveys were carried out online. ETC

      Analysis
      The data was analysed by Guardian journalists in conjunction with YouGov. Additional research exploring the relationship between populist attitudes and conspiracy theories was conducted by Levente Littvay, from Central European University, and Matthijs Rooduijn from the University of Amsterdam.
      Models predicting populism and belief in the specific conspiracy theories were fixed effects logistic regressions including controls for country, gender, two polynomials (an expression of more than two algebraic terms) of age (grouped in decades), and urbanicity, measured as city centre or large town, suburb, small town, or settlement…

      LINK (on left): Revealed: populists far more likely to believe in conspiracy theories
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/01/populism-what-is-yougov-cambridge-globalism-project-methodology

      2 May: YouGov: About the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project
      Dr Joel Rogers de Waal, Academic Director, YouGov
      The YouGov-Cambridge Centre has partnered with The Guardian and the ***Bennett Institute for Public Policy at Cambridge University to produce the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project…
      The project has involved collaboration with numerous academics and practitioners to develop an extensive, multidimensional survey, which can correlate attitudes and behaviour across myriad areas of life: from politics and democracy to food, travel and technology; from soft power and supra-nationalism to consumer habits and the environment…
      https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2019/05/01/about-yougov-cambridge-globalism-project

      ***7 May: Bennett Institute For Public Policy, Cambridge Uni: YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project releases new study in partnership with The Guardian & Bennett Institute
      The research findings will be further explored at a public event on 13 May in collaboration with The Guardian as part of their new populism series. The event, entitled: ‘The new populism: In conversation with Tony Blair’ will feature the former Prime Minister in conversation with Paul Lewis, editor of The Guardian’s project on populism, and YouGov CEO, Stephan Shakespeare, introducing the research findings…
      https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/news/yougov-cambridge-globalism-project-releases-new-st/

      Bennett Institute only set up a year ago:

      17 Apr 2018: CambridgeNetworkUK: New Cambridge institute to tackle policy challenges in our age of disruption
      The Bennett Institute for Public Policy has been founded to address the new patterns of inequality and social unrest emerging around the globe, while training the policy-makers of tomorrow.
      Led by inaugural Director, Professor Michael Kenny, and the Bennett Professor of Public Policy, economist Diane Coyle, the Institute will combine fundamental research and rigorous analysis with the search for new practical solutions to challenges such as the digital divide, resource scarcity and the need for more equitable growth…

      Peter Bennett established the Peter Bennett Foundation in 2012 to seek innovative ways to reduce poverty and promote equality. He has a long-standing belief in the role of public policy as the most effective way to reach solutions to major social issues.
      Cambridge launched its £2 billion Dear World… Yours, Cambridge philanthropic campaign for the University and Colleges in October 2015. To date more than £1.1 billion has been raised towards the total, including the gift from Peter Bennett.

      Peter Bennett
      Peter Bennett has had a highly successful career in banking and fund management. He worked at Chase Manhattan Bank and JP Morgan in Commodity Finance, Derivatives and Mortgage Backed Securities, in both London and New York from 1978 to 1995; and was Head of JP Morgan’s US Derivatives Business and Mortgage Backed Securities Business. From 2000-2009, Peter Bennett helped to establish and build Gottex Fund Management, a Fund of Funds business. In 2012, the Peter Bennett Foundation was established to seek innovative ways to reduce poverty and promote equity.
      Peter Bennett was born in Hong Kong and attended St Joseph’s College Hong Kong and John Fisher School Surrey. He is an alumnus of Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read Economics. He lives in Hong Kong.
      https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/new-cambridge-institute-policy-challenges/?

      lol.

      20

      • #
        pat

        note. survey data not available, it seems.

        20

      • #
        Dennis

        YouGov also own Galaxie Pat.

        At the link stopturnbull I posted above there is an report on how the former PM used Newspoll.

        10

      • #
        Another Ian

        Pat

        Find out how many people they surveyed and then subtract that from total population.

        Then remember the reason fro Small Dead Animals:-

        ” Why this blog?

        Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me “what Canadians think”. In all that time they never once asked.

        This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio – “You don’t speak for me.” ”

        http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/

        10

      • #
        RickWill

        If US is a hotbed of denial then EU is a hotbed of climate change zealotry. New Zealand is becoming the leading nation of zealots.

        This interview with Caleb Rossiter demonstrates how narrow minded a zealot can be:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QYird73c0k
        No matter what facts Rossiter presents, interviewer, Juanita Tolliver, remains convinced that climate disaster is just around the corner.

        10

    • #
      WXcycles

      Exclusive: Out of 23 big countries, only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia had higher proportion of doubters

      Two of the hottest countries on the planet, btw.

      30

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        I would say the amount of ‘climate’ brainwashing in Indonesia is pretty minimal compared to here. Saudi, who knows.

        10

  • #
    pat

    ***final line says it all:

    7 May: Foreign Policy Mag: Report: China Rises in U.N. Climate Talks, While U.S. Goes AWOL
    As the global body becomes increasingly identified with tackling climate change, Trump refuses to take part, handing the reins to Beijing.
    By Colum Lynch, Robbie Gramer
    In a bid to slow the pace of global warming, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has invited major powers, including Britain, China, India, France, and Turkey, to help shape the environmental agenda at a major U.N. climate summit in New York in September. The United States, which the U.N. encouraged to participate, has yet to say whether it will attend the high-level meeting and has opted out of the preliminary negotiations—leaving it to others, including rivals like Beijing, to write the rules.

    The absence of U.S. negotiators from the U.N. talks risks undercutting the White House’s effort at the U.N. to contain the rise of China, which has taken the lead in several forums on environmental issues. With Washington on the sidelines, Beijing—at Guterres’s invitation—will co-chair discussions at the U.N. with New Zealand on “nature-based solutions” to global warming, including management of forests, rivers, lakes, and oceans.

    “By staying out of these negotiations, the U.S. is basically giving Beijing a free pass,” Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group, told Foreign Policy. “So much of the current effort to contain China at the U.N. boils down to bickering over language in not very important resolutions. I think the Trump administration is missing the big picture, which is that for a lot of countries climate diplomacy is the most important part of what the U.N. does.”…

    The White House has selected a climate change doubter to lead a commission to scrutinize a raft of U.S. and international studies detailing the impact a warmer climate is having on the Earth. In an Arctic Council meeting this week in Rovaniemi, Finland, the United States blocked the international body from even mentioning climate change in a final outcome declaration…

    “The disappearance of biodiversity is, with climate change, another existential threat to humanity,” France’s U.N. ambassador, François Delattre, told Foreign Policy. “What does it take for the awareness of this man-made tragedy, a kind of genesis in reverse, to cross the beltway?”…

    Paul Bodnar, a former senior National Security Council aide on energy and climate change under former President Barack Obama’s administration, said such warnings aren’t likely to gain much traction in Trump’s Washington…
    The latest report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services cites five key causes of the collapse of Earth biodiversity…

    LINK: The United States Owes the World $1 Trillion
    By failing to live up to its international climate change agreements, the United States has cost the world a bundle in damage.
    Argument | Joseph Curtin, Max Münchmeyer

    LINK: The Kids Are Taking Charge of Climate Change
    Teenagers around the world are protesting in unprecedented numbers—and making governments nervous.
    Argument | Paul Hockenos…

    The White House has responded to these reports with a mix of mockery and contempt, critics say…
    “The Trump administration has a track record of ignoring science,” said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, the chief program officer for the Natural Resources Defense Council…
    The Obama administration put climate change at the front and center of its diplomacy…

    Ahead of the Arctic Council meeting this week, the Trump administration pushed to strip all references to climate change or the Paris climate agreement from the international body’s joint statement, according to the Washington Post…

    ***(FINAL LINE) China is still the world’s largest consumer of coal, and its total carbon emissions increased last year, despite a pledge to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into renewable energy in the coming years.
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/07/china-rises-united-nations-climate-change-talks-u-s-trump-goes-awol-environment-diplomacy-global-warming/

    the writers:

    FP bio: Colum Lynch: Before coming to FP, Lynch worked for more than a decade for the Washington Post. He previously reported for the Boston Globe. Lynch has an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism.

    FP bio: Robbie Gramer: Before he joined FP in 2016, he managed the NATO portfolio at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, for three years. He’s a graduate of American University, where he studied international relations and European affairs.

    20

  • #
    pat

    theirABC gets touch on Labor! lol:

    AUDIO: 6min4sec: 9 May: ABC AM: Cost of Labor’s climate policy already clear: Tanya Plibersek
    By Melissa Clarke on AM
    Labor’s policy costings will be released tomorrow, but will they include figure for the cost to the budget of the party’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target?
    Tanya Plibersek is the Deputy Labor Leader and Shadow Education Minister.
    She told AM that the cost to the budget is already clear — just over $500 million — and Labor’s policy will create thousands of jobs in the renewable market while emissions are reduced…
    Guest: Tanya Plibersek, Deputy Leader; Shadow Education Minister.

    TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS:
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: It’s a pleasure to be with you, Kim.
    KIM LANDERS: All of Labor’s policy costings will be out tomorrow. Are we going to find a figure that tells us the cost to the Budget of Labor’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target?
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, the cost to the Budget is already clear; it’s just over $500 million.
    And that’s significantly smaller than the cost of the Budget of the Government’s policy, which is billions of dollars, including $2 billion extra into the Emissions Reductions Fund in the last Budget — that Emissions Reduction Fund that has actually seen pollution increase.
    So, there’s a difference between the cost to the Budget and the impact on the economy, and I think Scott Morrison’s being quite dishonest here, because he keeps asking for the impact on the economy.
    Well, our impact on the economy is the same as his. Warwick McKibbin modelled this in 2015.
    He repeated his assertion just weeks ago that the economy will continue to grow and the impact of Labor’s higher ambition for pollution reduction is the same as the Government’s, because…

    KIM LANDERS: The economic cost, though…
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: …we allow pollution to be reduced by purchasing offsets from overseas, and the Government won’t allow that.
    So the impact on the Budget is the same; the impact on the economy is the same. Its continued growth of over 2 per cent; there’ll be thousands of extra jobs created by investment in renewables.

    KIM LANDERS: But detailed costings of the emissions reduction policy, will that all be in figures tomorrow?
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: The impact on the Budget, yes, absolutely, because the impact on the Budget, what Government pays out for these policies, we know that…

    KIM LANDERS: What about the cost to business?
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, the cost to business will depend on how they reduce their pollution.
    If they use energy-efficiency measures, if they buy Australian permits — because we’re reinvesting in carbon farming initiatives here, because that’s good for our local environment; it provides income for farmers and for Indigenous communities — that’s an absolutely win-win option.
    And we’re allowing offsets to be purchased overseas. That brings down the cost to business, and so the cost of implementing our policies and the Government’s policies on the economy are the same.
    Warwick McKibbon said so; he said so again recently.

    KIM LANDERS: Let’s turn to another topic: refugees…
    TANYA PLIBERSEK: We would continue to work with the United States in the hope that the United States would take the total number that they have offered and perhaps more…READ ON FOR MURDOCH TAX QUOTES
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/cost-of-labors-climate-policy-already-clear:-tanya-plibersek/11095072

    30

  • #
    pat

    Fran’s climate election:

    AUDIO: 9min52sec: 9 May: ABC Breakfast: 100 per cent clean electricity target means economic opportunities for California
    The US is in the midst of what the Democratic party is calling a Constitutional crisis with the executive and legislative branches of government in open warfare over the Mueller report.
    While that crisis plays out, climate change has also found its way back to the top of the political agenda ahead of next year’s US presidential election.
    The Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris climate deal but it can’t formally leave the accord until after next year’s poll.
    In the meantime, California, a longtime leader in the US on climate policy, has set a 100 per cent clean electricity target for 2045.
    Guest: Kevin de Leon, former president, California state senate
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/100-per-cent-clean-electricity-california/11095314

    AUDIO: 9min45sec: 9 May: ABC Breakfast: First ever global river assessment finds only one-third still flowing
    The report warns the disruption is harming ecosystems, with 3,700 new large dams either under construction, or planned.
    Guest: Dr Gunther Grill, post-doctoral research fellow, Department of Geography, McGill University; lead author, first ever global wild rivers assessment
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/global-river-assessment-finds-only-one-third-still-flowing/11095030

    not even bothering with the links for the following:

    9 May: ABC Breakfast: Voters split in marginal seat of Dawson
    The sitting member George Christensen attracted unfavourable headlines early in the campaign, dubbed the “Member for Manila” because he’d been frequently absent from his electorate, spending time in the Philippines…
    It’s about as diverse as they come, with cane farming and coal mining vying for attention and funding with tourism and ***conservation…

    9 May: ABC Breakfast: Rockhampton businesses get behind Adani
    Adani’s controversial Carmichael Mine, proposed for central Queensland, has been one of the hot button issues of the federal election campaign…
    Cathy Van Extel has spent the past few days in the marginal LNP-held seat of Capricornia where the opening up of the Galilee Basin is a vote shifter.
    She’s spoken to business people about the benefits to the local economy from the Adani mine going ahead.
    Guests:
    Jack Trenaman, Director, SMW Group
    John Rolfe, Professor of Regional Economic Development, University of Central Queensland
    Mary Carroll, CEO, Capricorn Enterprise
    Sean Appleton, owner, Hideaway Resort
    Karla Way-McPhail, CEO, Coal Train

    10

  • #
    pat

    7 May: BBC: Scottish government scraps air tax cut
    Controversial plans to cut the amount of tax paid by passengers flying from Scottish airports have been scrapped after a backlash over the environmental impact.
    The Scottish government had wanted to reduce air departure tax by 50% before eventually abolishing it.
    But concerns were raised that the move could increase greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the number of flights.
    The government has now confirmed that the tax cut will not happen.
    Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said …[it] was “no longer compatible” with its climate targets…

    The announcement was criticised by Gordon Dewar, the chief executive of Edinburgh Airport…
    The airport had previously published a report which predicted halving the departure tax would create almost 4,000 jobs and add £1bn to the Scottish economy.The report claimed that failing to cut the tax could see Scotland lose out on nearly a million passengers every year…

    Derek Provan, chief executive of AGS Airports:
    “Over the course of the past year alone, we have seen the withdrawal by airlines of almost 30 routes from Aberdeen and Glasgow airports because of Air Passenger Duty.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48191110

    behind paywall:

    7 May: UK Telegraph: Businesses accuse SNP of cutting Scotland ‘off at the knees” after pledge to cut air departure tax is axed
    By Simon Johnson
    The Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the decision to abandon a long-promised cut to Air Passenger Duty (APD) would have a “have a significant and deleterious impact on the Scottish economy.”

    00

  • #
    pat

    7 May: Forbes: Eight EU Countries Will Demand Decarbonization by 2050 At Sibiu Summit
    by Dave Keating
    A planned ‘Future of Europe’ summit of European Union national leaders starting in Sibiu, Romania tomorrow was supposed to chart a course for the EU following Brexit. Instead, with Brexit delayed and in doubt, the summit will be marked by a fierce debate over the EU’s ambition on fighting climate change. And the “b-word” has been banned.

    Eight of the 28 EU countries have circulated a paper to national capitals ahead of the summit, leaked to the press, demanding that the bloc commit to phasing out carbon emissions by 2050 and dedicating ***25% of the EU’s next long-term budget to projects fighting climate change.
    The paper is signed by France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

    The paper also says the bloc should rapidly integrate its fragmented energy market. “A well-functioning and more integrated internal energy market will be key to the energy security in every region,” it reads. “The optimal use of existing infrastructure and the development of a more interconnected energy market are important tools to this end.”

    Franco-German Climate Fight
    But not everyone agrees. The European Commission put forward last year a proposal suggesting to lower emissions down to ‘net zero’ – a roughly 95% reduction with the remaining 5% made up for by funding emissions reduction outside Europe – by 2050. But the plan needs to be approved by all 28 EU member states, and while France’s Emmanuel Macron enthusiastically supports it, Germany’s Angela Merkel is more sceptical. Paris and Berlin clashed over the 2050 plan at a March European Council summit in Brussels, and it is set for a vote at the next summit in June.

    However the eight pro-decarbonization countries want the leaders to agree to the plan’s headline 2050 target earlier, at this week’s Sibiu summit. “To create a positive momentum, the EU must make ambitious announcements during the Sibiu Summit, preferably on setting a target for the EU to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, and on the principle of enhancing the ambition of its current NDC by 2020,” they write.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2019/05/07/eight-eu-countries-will-demand-decarbonization-by-2050-at-sibiu-summit/

    behind paywall:

    7 May: Financial Times: Eight EU countries call for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
    Eight EU countries have asked heads of fellow member states to cut greenhouse gas emissions to a net-zero level by 2050 and dedicate ***25 per cent of the bloc’s next seven-year budget to projects fighting climate change…
    The paper put out by the eight nations, seen by the Financial Times, said “at least 25 per cent of the spending should go to projects aimed at fighting against climate change… 
    As a general principle, the EU budget should not finance any policy detrimental to this objective.”…
    The nations that put out the paper said “an ambitious and cost-effective transition…can go hand in hand with prosperity and quality of life” and provide security to public and private investors, cutting the costs of shifting to a carbon-neutral economy…
    https://www.ft.com/content/77b0fd1e-7010-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5

    10

  • #
    pat

    7 May: SolarPowerPortalUK: Proposed solar and story VAT hike risks setting UK decarbonisation back years
    by Liam Stoker
    The Renewable Energy Association has taken aim at a government proposal to hike up the VAT rates attached to some energy saving materials, including solar and battery storage.
    A consultation launched by HM Revenue & Customs, which closed late last week, has proposed an increase in the VAT attached to these energy saving materials from 5% to 20%, essentially eliminating a discount that had been applied to those products…
    The new rates are proposed to come into effect from 1 October 2019…

    Frank Gordon, head of policy at the REA, said the proposed hike would hit the country’s small-scale renewable sector hard “during an already difficult landscape”.
    “This change risks setting back the UK decarbonisation of homes and businesses in the UK by a number of years”…
    “They are also failing to recognise the cumulative impact of withdrawing as many as 18 policy mechanisms that supported renewable energy deployment since 2015, which could leave the UK trailing behind on decarbonisation and clean growth.”
    https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/proposed_solar_and_storage_vat_hike_risks_setting_uk_decarbonisation_back_y

    20

  • #
    pat

    behind paywall:

    7 May: BusinessGreen: ‘Deeply worrying’: New global renewables capacity stalls in 2018
    by Michael Holder
    The amount of new renewable power capacity added around the world stalled in 2018, according to new figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which today described the latest data as a “deeply worrying” development in the battle against climate change. Last year’s performance marks the first time since 2001 that global growth in renewable power capacity failed to increase year on year, with new solar PV, wind, hydro, bioenergy and other clean electricity projects delivering around 180GW of net capacity in total – the same level as 2017 – the IEA said…
    https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3075144/deeply-worrying-new-global-renewables-capacity-stalls-in-2018

    6 May: Montel: Renewable energy growth stalls in 2018 – IEA
    by Jeff Coelho
    “The world cannot afford to press ‘pause’ on the expansion of renewables and governments need to act quickly to correct this situation and enable a faster flow of new projects,” said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA.
    Despite growth of 7% in renewables electricity generation, emissions from the power sector grew to record levels last year, with energy-related CO2 emissions rising 1.7% to 33 gigatonnes.

    China, EU slowdown
    China’s net renewable energy capacity growth fell from 82 GW in 2017 to 77 GW last year, while the EU’s slowed to 22 GW from 23 GW.
    The former saw a slowdown in solar PV growth, and in the latter flagging wind additions outweighed growth in solar.
    Elsewhere, the IEA said, “policy transition challenges and changing renewable incentives resulted in slower growth of onshore wind in India and of solar PV in Japan”…
    https://www.montelnews.com/en/story/renewable-energy-growth-stalls-in-2018–iea/1006923

    20

  • #
    Dennis

    “The common enemy of humanity is man.
    In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up
    with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming,
    water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these
    dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through
    changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome.
    The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
    – Club of Rome,
    premier environmental think-tank,
    consultants to the United Nations

    40

  • #
    Bill in Oz

    EARLY COLD WET WINTER !
    IN THE ADELAIDE HILLS !

    Cold wet Winter
    Is just outside the door !
    Hail predicted
    And cold rain galore !

    I’m so glad I’m inside
    Warm dry and snug !
    With A/C on full bore
    While waiting for the gas.

    They keep out
    The bloody cold,
    Fend off all the bugs
    Keep me alive and healthy

    Of course the Greenies say
    “Bill you are a SINNER
    For burning fossil fuel
    Releasing CO2 !
    Destroying all the world”

    But I don’t give a stuff
    For their stupid fairy tale
    Of Global bloody warming !
    It’s just a faith that failed
    For want of any proof !

    And far better to be
    Alive and kicking
    Than a long time dead
    From the cold.

    71

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Yes Bill going to be colder here in north east Victoriastan but have a shed full of wood and I’m currently pumping out plenty of CO2 from the Coonara in the hope for some globull warming .

      50

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Good luck staying warm Rob
        And I hope you get tanks full of rain.
        Just got home 5 minutes ago.
        Outside is is freezing
        And not because of wind chill factor
        Just very very cold..
        I think Global warming
        Has got all shy on us
        And pissed off..
        Not sure where exactly
        Most of the Northern hemisphere
        Is also freezing cold
        Despite it being Spring there.
        Maybe Ms Global Warming
        Is hiding out in Bali
        Or Phuket !

        31

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          The temperature rose to 9℃ in Woodside.

          It must be caused by all that Global Warming we heard about in 1988 (and far too many times since).

          I think, after a recent discussion, that the ABC has succeeded in brainwashing a substantial proportion of the public. Fortunately their market share is falling.

          30

          • #
            Bill in Oz

            Graeme, if those folks
            Would just step outside their
            A/C heated workplaces
            Or A/C heated cars
            Or A/C heated homes
            For even an hour,
            They’d feel the total bizarre
            Stupidity of global warming

            21

  • #
  • #
    robert rosicka

    Totally OT , it has just been mentioned that Israel Folau was quoting from the same book that politicians hold and swear by when elected to parliament.
    Let’s hope this doesn’t go to court and get tested before a judge !
    Rugby Australia might have bitten off more than they can chew .

    70

    • #
      James Murphy

      I might not agree with what he said, but I’ll defend his right to say it – except I’d be deluded to think Australians had any real rights to freedom of speech or freedom religion.

      70

    • #
      AndyG55

      If it goes to court, will the judge expect him to give testimony on the Bible ?

      20

  • #
    WXcycles

    OT: Something that keeps coming up in the political blah-blahs is the lack of real-wage-rises, and lack of disposable income.

    When industrial action and strikes were basically banned and criminalized, and huge fines imposed, this meant the ability to force employers pay a reasonable wage disappeared. And the “fair-pay” commission was supposed to make ‘fair’ decisions which forced employers pay a minimum reasonable and fair award, based on productivity.

    But did this happen?

    Nope. All that really happened is that employers didn’t have to actually bargain any more, and the real-wages and real-conditions have steadily been eroded in the interim. And in the same way CPI is a confected number (and it clearly is) so are productivity and fair-pay decision adjustments.

    So much for all the blah-blah about real-wages and this insanity of wage-subsidies by labor, because direct industrial action in the form of the threat of national strikes and industrial disruptions to overly selfish employers, would have produced real-wage rises, and maintained work conditions, regardless of the ‘political solution’, that has basically failed to deliver regular reasonable wage rises.

    The politicians have screwed us all with their clever BS methods, and now want to make the labor-market even more dysfunctional via instituting perverse national robin-hood-lite wage subsidies, to ‘fix’ the chronic low wages and poverty problems that they made.

    So why not just go-out-on-strikes, instead, and make the EMPLOYERS pay a proper wage again?

    Why should underpaid taxpayers have to pay more to politicians once again to make the system even more of a farce?

    If child-care workers went out on strike for a week, every other month, until their wages rose by $40 per week (back-paid from their first strike) you can bet it would take only one or two such strikes to get this settled- sans the idiot grandstanding politicians who are just trying to buy our vote with their solutions to the problems they created.

    But no, we must allow the politician clowns to declare all strikes illegal, and for same politicians to now screw the system of awarding wages and conditions completely, with subsidies, paid by everyone except the employer, who’s too selfish to pay a proper fricken wage, and is thus going to be rewarded for it (i.e. their profit-margin is to be subsidized by not having to pay a legal full-wage to employees) out of the pockets of the rest of the underpaid.

    Makes sense!

    I say the parents can stay home and look after your own children during the working day then!

    I bet they get a fair pay then, without all this stealing from underpaid workers again, to pay other grossly underpaid workers.

    2c

    40

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Hi WX,

      Something else to think about. The shell of the former Kurri Kurri Aluminium smelter has been closed since 2012 for one reason only: politicians playing games with Australian industry.
      Approximately 1200 full-time workers and probably double that number of part timers were put off into the job market which also had to absorb all the former automotive industry people from Victoria.

      The fact is that few politicians care about building a dynamic industrial base in our land and temporarily soak up some of the unemployed in universities for a few years.

      People running small businesses are frightened to employ people because of the pitfalls of dealing with problem workers, or rather, non-workers.

      One bad experience can ruin years of hard work.

      The only solution to getting higher wages is to have a growing, confident, world class economy.

      We have a government problem that’s causing low wages.

      KK

      70

      • #
        WXcycles

        ” … and temporarily soak up some of the unemployed in universities for a few years.”

        Indeed. Plus likely come out of uni more poorly educated and less employable than when they went in.

        50

        • #
          AndyG55

          “temporarily soak up some of the unemployed in universities for a few years”

          Gives me more work thus income, though 😉

          50

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Yes. Australia probably has more professors per head of population than any other nation on earth.

          Politicians are supposed to be moving us forward but are just leaving the country in a holding pattern while they set about their own special projects.
          This needs to change.

          30

          • #
            Another Ian

            KK

            “Yes. Australia probably has more professors per head of population than any other nation on earth.”

            Just think where that puts us on the bell curve

            30

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              Able to see the fine detail in so many areas but not at all able or interested in seeing the Big Picture.

              i.e. A loss of contact with reality.

              10

  • #
    PeterW.

    The dog returns to his vomit.
    The sow returns to her mire.
    …. and the burnt fool’s bandaged finger,
    Goes wobbling back to the fire.

    A generation that has experienced neither real suffering, nor serious threat, imagines that it can do anything, no matter how stupid, without having to worry about consequences.

    40

  • #
    AndyG55

    Big cold front to hit all of southern Australia, while the US freezes its butt off as well.

    Sure sign of “climate change” 😉

    The coming protracted cooling needs to be shouted out LOUD AND CLEAR.

    And the whole anti-CO2 farce MUST be somehow brought to a halt before too much more economic damage is done.

    60

  • #
    pat

    1 Apr: AFR: Labor’s Safeguard Mechanism 2.0 explained
    by Ben Potter
    The Coalition’s Safeguard Mechanism always had the moving parts of a carbon trading system within it, but the engine wasn’t tuned to put any downward pressure on emissions because the Coalition didn’t want to use the mechanism for that purpose.

    Now Labor says that should it win the election it will move to tune up the engine, put some more high octane fuel in the tank and give the Coalition’s creation real teeth as – Safeguard Mechanism 2.0 – a cap and trade system that bites…

    Firms that underachieve and need credits will also be able to buy them, from the electricity sector, which Labor proposes to force to cut its emissions under a separate scheme, from the land sector and potentially – either under bilateral agreements or eventually under the Paris climate agreement – from offshore…READ ALL
    https://www.afr.com/news/policy/climate/labor-s-safeguard-mechanism-2-0-explained-20190401-p519q0

    20

  • #
    pat

    7 May: Berkeley News: New paper: State’s cap-and-trade program is falling short of goals
    by Will Kane
    California regulators are overestimating the impact the state’s cap-and-trade system is having on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new policy brief from a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Environmental Public Policy, part of the Goldman School of Public Policy.

    In the paper (LINK), published Tuesday, research fellow Barbara Haya argues that the California Air Resources Board has made rosy assumptions about a program protecting forests that may only have accomplished 18% of the emission reductions it claims have been made…

    The discrepancy could be as much as 80 million tons of carbon dioxide since 2013, which is equivalent to more than the total annual emissions from California’s entire electricity sector…READ ON
    https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/05/07/new-paper-states-cap-and-trade-program-is-falling-short-of-goals/

    20

  • #
    pat

    8 May: New Zealand introduces ‘zero carbon’ bill with concession to farmers
    Under a draft law, the country will reduce greenhouse gases to net-zero by 2050, except for methane from its large meat and dairy herds
    by Megan Darby
    The government proposed a 24-47% cut in methane from 2017 levels, in a compromise with farmers. Almost half the country’s emissions come from agriculture, driven by large sheep and cattle herds belching methane.

    Based on the UK model, the bill (LINK) would set up an independent climate change commission to review and set “emissions budgets” on a five-yearly basis…
    With 10 million cows and 28 million sheep to 5 million people, concerns from the industry have proved hard to ignore…
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/05/08/new-zealand-introduces-zero-carbon-bill-concession-farmers/

    20

  • #
    pat

    9 May: Reuters: European Union nations are living far beyond the Earth’s means: report
    by Jan Strupczewski
    The European Union’s 28 countries consume the Earth’s resources much faster than they can be renewed, and none of them has sustainable consumption policies, a report released on Thursday said, as EU leaders meet to discuss priorities for the next five years…
    The EU and its citizens are currently using twice more than the EU ecosystems can renew,” the report by the World Wide Fund (WWF) and Global Footprint Network said…

    “The EU uses up almost 20 percent of the Earth’s bio-capacity although it comprises only 7 percent of the world population,” the report said.
    “In other words, 2.8 planets would be needed if everyone consumed at the rate of the average EU resident. This is well above the world average which is approximately 1.7 planets,” it said…READ ON
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-consumption-report/european-union-nations-are-living-far-beyond-the-earths-means-report-idUSKCN1SE2TH

    9 May: Bloomberg: India Has a Deadly Addiction to Cheap Coal
    A rush to alleviate poverty and build infrastructure has sidelined efforts to clear the air and combat climate change.
    By Iain Marlow and Rajesh Kumar Singh
    This is the second in a three-part series. Read part one (LINK).
    In India, cheap energy is paramount, and that means coal…
    Coal provides roughly 70 percent of India’s electrical energy needs…
    For India, the cheap coal that’s fueled the country’s economic rise in recent decades is vital for its future growth…

    “We’re very concerned about the environment, but if you ask me to put it in the order of priorities, I would say having sufficient power for development comes first,” Power Minister R.K. Singh said at a conference in February. “Around the world, anti-coal movements are going on. Several coal-fired plants are getting shut. But we can’t do that.”…READ ON
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-05-08/india-has-a-deadly-addiction-to-cheap-coal

    00

    • #
      pat

      8 May: Reuters: China April coal imports rose 13.6 pct from year earlier on stockpiling
      by Meng Meng and Dominique Patton
      China’s coal imports in April rose as power plants stockpiled supplies ahead of the peak summer electricity demand season, customs data showed on Wednesday…
      For the first four months of 2019, imports were 99.93 million tonnes, up 1.7 percent from a year ago, the data showed.
      https://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-trade-coal-idUSL3N22J2U9

      00

  • #
    pat

    8 May: Reuters: Energy company SSE to cut 444 jobs as customers snub smart meters
    by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Susanna Twidale in London; Additional reporting by Clara Denina in London
    Britain and Ireland’s largest trade union Unite said energy company SSE Plc would cut 444 jobs in its retail sector covering smart meter installation, blaming the move on a lack of interest by customers for the devices that could help cut energy emissions…
    The government hopes smart meters will encourage people to use less electricity…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sse-layoffs/energy-company-sse-to-cut-444-jobs-as-customers-snub-smart-meters-idUSKCN1SE1AY

    10

  • #
    pat

    9 May: Reuters: ‘New economics’: the way to save the planet?
    by Matthew Green
    The science is in: the endless pursuit of economic growth is devouring the foundations of life on Earth, and no country – rich or poor – can expect to escape dire consequences if things go on as they are. So how might the world change course?
    Though still confined to the fringes, a globally dispersed but tight-knit coalition of economists, grass-roots organizers, business leaders and politicians, along with some investors, have begun to sketch out an answer…
    “No country on Earth is doing what is required to make sure we get toward an economic system capable of confronting the twin challenges of ecological collapse and climate change,” said Laurie Laybourn-Langton, an associate fellow at London’s Institute for Public Policy Research and lead author of a new report on environmental breakdown titled This Is A Crisis…

    While many businesses and local groups are pursuing variants of these initiatives, the philosophy is most visible in the Green New Deal…
    “It is a 70-, 80-, 90-trillion dollar … socialist takeover of energy,” Jonathan Hoenig of the Capitalist Pig hedge fund told Fox Business in March. “It really is socialism writ large.”…

    “The confluence of panic in the eyes of young people with hard science is opening up the debate in the mainstream like it hasn’t before,” said Katherine Trebeck, an Australian political scientist who co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a network of academics, businesses and social movements…
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-extinction/new-economics-the-way-to-save-the-planet-idUSKCN1SE2CN

    not exactly a “new report”:

    12 Feb: Institute for Public Policy Research: This is a crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown
    Mainstream political and policy debates have failed to recognise that human impacts on the environment have reached a critical stage, potentially eroding the conditions upon which socioeconomic stability is possible.
    by Laurie Laybourn-Langton, Lesley Rankin, Darren Baxter
    DOWNLOAD FULL PUBLICATION (44 PAGES)
    https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/age-of-environmental-breakdown

    00

  • #
    pat

    the rightwing think tank that priced the Green New Deal at $93 trillion has more to say; unfortunately, including positive words about a carbon tax!

    8 May: AmericanActionForum: Comparing the Benefits and Costs of Notable Climate Policies
    by Philip Rossetti
    Summary
    •Advocates of dramatic climate policy often presume that the urgency and scope of the problem by default means that no policy proposal is too costly or too radical.
    •An “at any cost” approach to policy can lead to outcomes that have higher costs than benefits, inflicting more harm than help, and this is true even for exigent collective action problems.
    •Analyzing the costs and benefits of electricity and transportation policies in the Green New Deal using the Social Cost of Carbon shows the costs are several times larger than the capturable benefits—but policies not in the Green New Deal, like a revenue-neutral carbon tax, are more likely to produce more benefits than costs

    Conclusion
    Advocates of policies such as the GND often contend that climate change represents an urgent crisis that demands radical action, regardless of the costs. That underlying premise, however, is flawed. Climate change is not the only existentially threatening problem Americans face, and should not preclude policymakers from considering the cost-effectiveness of policies meant to mitigate it…
    A dramatic reorganization of the economy to combat a global collective action problem like climate change fails to properly align the costs and benefits. It is an infeasible approach to long-term policy success to subscribe to policy regardless of its efficiency. A nation that takes such an approach to policy would quickly find itself bankrupt…
    https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/comparing-the-benefits-and-costs-of-notable-climate-policies/

    00

  • #
    pat

    Hewson channels Bob Dylan, admits electricity is expensive, demands much more pain! huh?

    8 May: SMH: Come senators, MPs, there’s a climate emergency raging
    By John Hewson
    Not only have electricity and gas prices rocketed up to the significant detriment of households, and destroying the viability of many businesses, but we still don’t have a national energy policy, nor a responsible, whole-of-economy, emissions-reduction target for 2050. Our Paris commitment is about half what it should be.
    Even Labor’s commitment of reducing carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 falls short…

    To be serious about a response to climate, the focus should be, positively, on the detail of the transition and its management – how many jobs will be lost in coal mining and power generation and in the transition to autonomous trucking, to cite just a few of the more obvious. How will people in those industries be compensated, retrained, relocated? How will communities be supported and the development of new industries facilitated?…
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/come-senators-mps-there-s-a-climate-emergency-raging-20190508-p51l3m.html

    00

  • #
    pat

    turning good news into bad news:

    VIDEO: 9min39sec: 9 May: ABC 7.30 Report: The re-birth of Lake Eyre
    The waters that so devastated northern Queensland earlier this year are resurrecting the country’s parched central deserts – notably the Lake Eyre Basin. It’s being called a “special” flood – possibly the biggest to make its way through Lake Eyre in nearly half a century. Environmentalists say the Lake Eyre Basin is becoming a last refuge for wildlife as irrigation, dams and diversions choke the life out of the once mighty Murray-Darling.
    https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/the-re-birth-of-lake-eyre/11099272

    headline on “Just In” page:

    ‘Just add water’: Lake Eyre is filling in a way not seen for 45 years
    7.30 By Dominique Schwartz with photography by Brendan Esposito

    PICS: 9 May: ABC: Wild abandon: Across Australia’s central deserts, floodwaters are filling Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, but with the water comes a message: let the rivers run.
    By Dominique Schwartz with photography by Brendan Esposito 7.30 Report
    This year, the water arrived in a way not seen for 45 years and, as mining exploration has locals worried, they are using the occasion to sound a warning…

    It’s “pretty unusual” to have two floods in a row, Don says, “and that’s why we’re pretty lucky with this river and why it should stay the way it is: no interference up-stream, like dams or extraction of water, or anything at all — because we would miss this flow … big time,” he says…
    In 2014, Queensland’s Liberal National Party changed the laws protecting the rivers and floodplains in the Channel Country, which environmentalists say, potentially opens them up to shale gas mining, or fracking…

    In opposition, Labor promised to protect these environmentally sensitive areas, but now in government in Queensland, it continues to release land for oil and gas exploration, according to Fiona Maxwell from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
    Tens of thousands of square kilometres of the basin are now approved for oil and gas exploration, she says…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-09/lake-eyre-is-a-wild-river-system-left-to-run-its-course/11035506

    00

  • #
    pat

    Bill Shorten in Cairns to announce Renewable Energy Zone vision for FNQ
    The Cairns Post-4 hours ago
    QUEENSLAND’S first Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) will be declared in the Far North under a Labor plan to unleash a new era of wind, solar and bio-power production…

    00

  • #
    pat

    the never-ending climate election, according to theirABC today:

    AUDIO: 4min53sec: 9 May: ABC PM: Pacific Islands journalists living the reality of climate change, not just reporting on it
    By Caroline Winter on PM
    They’re watching their island homes being ravished every day by the affects of climate change.
    For reporters in the Pacific Islands, it’s their job to not only live the reality of the effects of a changing climate, but to understand the complexities of climate change and inform their communities to ensure they have a future.
    Featured:
    Amelia Makutu, Suva resident
    Seia Ualesi, Samoan newspaper reporter
    Ben Kedoga, journalist and radio broadcaster in PNG
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/pacific-islands-journalists-living-the-reality-of-climate-change/11098568

    how ridiculous is this one?

    AUDIO: 4min38sec: 9 May: ABC PM: Scott Morrison forced to clarify what Government is doing to stop species extinction
    By Stephanie Borys on PM
    A dire warning was issued earlier this week, that a million of the world’s species are under threat of extinction.
    Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared his Government is already dealing with the problem.
    But he’s been forced to clarify his comments today, after there was confusion about what exactly has been done.
    Featured:
    Stephanie Borys, ABC Political Reporter
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/pm-clarifies-what-government-is-doing-to-stop-species-extinction/11098086

    AUDIO: 5min05sec: 9 May: ABC PM: As Australia’s climate wars continue, New Zealand deliberates zero emissions bill
    By Eleanor Whitehead on PM
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/new-zealand-deliberates-zero-emissions-bill/11098262

    ABC RN THE WORLD TODAY 9 MAY 2019:

    Big step against climate change as UK goes a week without coal by Nick Grimm

    Climate change to wipe $571 bln off real estate by 2030, report warns by Peter Ryan

    00

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      I heard that little clip direct on radio.

      Despite no measurable signs of sea level change the journalist felt a deep obligation to keep her readers informed of the damage being done by the lifestyles of those rich white countries “polluting” the environment.

      So far as I can tell nobody has been able to identify any damage to the world’s islands that’s been done by Climate Change.

      The Fantasy lives on, enriching the lives of journalists and politicians.

      KK

      30

  • #

    Think of it as evolution in action. If Australians become extinct, fewer governments will force people to gauntlet-vote at gunpoint, and certainly no one will call it democracy. Six countries have tried something of the sort and only the most desperate starvelings would move to any of them. America tried its own Noble Experiment and emigration from that prohibitionist Altruria exceeded immigration into by 1931.

    20

    • #
      el gordo

      Italy has become the first European state to join the fascist one belt one road. What did the Romans ever do for us besides viaducts, roman law and fascism.

      10

  • #
    Drapetomania

    Labours shadow..(and he will always be a shadow) financial minister just said their climate change policies will actually make us money..of good grief..

    10