How long will the press gallery let Morrison play them on climate inaction? Plus other tips from the Crikey bunker.
Morrison’s free pass What exactly does Scott Morrison have to do before the press gallery will do its job and point out his failures on climate change?
Yesterday at his otherwise insipid (and, of course, heavily leaked) Press Club address, the climate denialist leader of a climate denialist government again refused to commit to the already-too-late 2050 target for net-zero emissions, allowing that he would like to do it. This was portrayed by at least one senior gallery journalist as evidence that Morrison was shifting to “a more ambitious climate change target”.
Hardly. Morrison’s government is committed to increasing fossil fuel use through a “gas-led recovery” policy written by the Liberals’ energy company donors. He is funding studies for more coal-fired power stations and is committed to wasting money on discredited carbon capture storage fantasies and more “soil magic” carbon sequestration grants for National Party supporters. Australia remains on track to miss even its hopelessly inadequate 2030 emissions targets.
