SP Newsletter No.396

Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Greens, announced that he was resigning from the leadership of the party earlier this month. He will also resign from the Senate. Brown has been a senator for 16 years and leader of the party since it was formed in 1992.

Christine Milne has been elected as the new leader of the Greens and Adam Bandt has been elected deputy leader.

Since the party’s inception the mild mannered Brown has been the face of the Greens and its main national spokesperson. Under Brown’s leadership the Greens have grown to be the ‘third force’ in Australian politics winning 1.7 million votes in the last federal election.

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The Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry eventually presented its final report on March 16. There have been very few more expensive exercises in irrelevance than this. While the State ALP Government faces annihilation at this weekend’s election, this whitewash only highlights the massive contradictions capitalist governments face in addressing climate change.

Two other reports were also released in the same week. One by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the CSIRO, and another by the Climate Commission. Both of these reports point out the scientific facts behind the bleak future of increasing exposure to risks of extreme weather events.

By Tim Michael, Socialist Party Brisbane

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Once again, a United Nations-sponsored climate change conference has completely failed to address the issue of global warming. Indeed, the latest attempt – in Durban, South Africa, last December – pushed any hope of a deal back to beyond 2020, already far too late for meaningful action in the view of most climate change scientific opinion. Pete Dickenson reports.

Despite its utter, abject failure, the chair of the conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, proclaimed a resounding success. Referring to a ‘plan A’ (supposedly legally binding), rather than a voluntary ‘plan B’, she said: “we have concluded this meeting with plan A to save our planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren to come. We have made history”. (The Times, 12 December) Chris Huhne, Britain’s energy and climate change minister, added: “This is the first time we have seen major economies commit to take action demanded by the science”. (New Scientist, 17 December)

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Carbon tax pushes workers away from the environmental movement

Julia Gillard’s so called ‘Clean Energy Future’, the 18 pieces of legislation that make up the carbon tax, have been introduced to the Parliament. The legislation has the support of the Greens, who opposed Kevin Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Also supporting it are a swathe of environmental groups.

But does the carbon tax represent real action on climate change? The unfortunate answer is ‘no’.

By David Suter, Socialist Party

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The decade’s long struggle between environmentalists, the logging industry and the Tasmanian State Government is in the public eye once again. The latest chapter in this battle to protect Tasmania’s native forests is the implementation of a new deal known as the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.

This deal will see over $270 million allocated to funding a ‘transition’ away from the logging of native Tasmanian forests. This includes $148 million which will go directly to the forestry industry. On the surface the deal appears to have some positive features in that it aims to preserve over 430,000 hectares of native forest. However, experts have agreed that the commitment made to the forestry industry will likely mean that already protected forest will be logged to make up for the shortfall.

By Andrew Grant, Socialist Party

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The Newcastle Branch of the Socialist Party is holding a public meeting at 1pm on Saturday September 10 @ the Stag and Hunter Hotel (upstairs meeting room), Maitland Road, Mayfield, NSW.

We are opposed to Gillard’s carbon tax as it forces ordinary people, rather than the big polluters, to pay. We stand for urgent action to stop global warming but say we can’t leave all the decisions in the hands of big business.

The only way to save the environment is on the basis of public ownership, democratic control and sustainable planning. Come along to this meeting to find out what socialists say about climate change.

For more information contact Robyn on 0422729884 or email our National Office.

The political debate surrounding climate change has been something of a rollercoaster ride over recent years. After years of a climate change denying Howard government, many believed things were on the up when Rudd’s Labor government came to power in 2007. To the dismay of many, Rudd’s initial policy approach – the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme – proved lacking, and was labeled “worse than useless” by the Greens.

After Rudd’s unceremonious sacking, Gillard took over, stating “there will be no carbon tax” under her leadership. Less than a year later, Gillard announced in February her intention to bring in a carbon tax. The Greens, who now hold the balance of power in both houses of parliament, have used their position to support the new plan.

By Mel Gregson, Socialist Party

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SP Newsletter No.364

Hydraulic Fracturing or “fracking” is a technique for extracting gas from deep within shale rock and coal beds. It looks set to become big oil’s newest gold rush and, as usual, their desperation for profit makes them blind to the environmental costs of their folly.

The process of fracking involves using high pressure to inject massive volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals into dense rock formations. This breaks the rock and natural gas is released and captured. The basic technique has existed for several decades but recent advances in technology have made it possible to frack the gas out of deeper and denser rock.

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We are on the verge of a disastrous change in global climate, and none of the dominant parties are offering realistic solutions. The current ALP proposal, supported by the Greens, is the use of a pollution tax to increase the cost of carbon emissions. According to the market logic accepted by these parties, this will encourage people and industries to decrease their use of pollution intensive energy sources, and find alternatives.

By David Elliott, Socialist Party Melbourne

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SP Newsletter No.360

Talks between International Power and the Victorian State Government about the closure of Australia’s dirtiest power plant, Hazelwood, were abandoned recently. This is a sign that neither big business nor the major parties are serious about addressing climate change. If we are to avert the global warming catastrophe it is key that coal fired power plants such as Hazelwood are phased out rapidly.

Coal fired power plants are responsible for approximately half of Australia’s carbon dioxide emissions and generate nearly 90% of electricity in Australia. It’s clear that phasing out coal is a key task when it comes to tackling global warming.

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