Of all the supposed flaws in the proposed CPRS, the one that seems to have gained the most traction is the concern that, as Jeremy Sear puts it “the more you sacrifice at home – the more some corporate polluter can emit instead.” GetUp is planning to run a full-page ad in The Oz tomorrow demanding the government fix this issue.
This issue has been discussed a number of times on LP. dk.au has emphasised the importance (and apologies if I’m oversimplifying here) of the sociological aspects of the issue, and the need for people to be involved in the decarbonization process – if they see their voluntary efforts being lost, support for the process will vanish. I don’t think it’s a big problem, myself. Despite all this, I don’t think anyone who cares about climate change thinks it’s the biggest problem with the proposed CPRS. The biggest problem, by far, is the twin evils of locking in monumentally inadequate carbon reduction targets and too-low projected carbon prices. The second-biggest problem is the ladeling out of free permits to Big Carbon.
All the voluntary participation in the world isn’t going to make more than a marginal difference to Australia’s carbon emissions. Tighter targets will make a big difference. So why spend all this lobbying effort to fix problems at the margins of the scheme, rather than tackling the big one head-on?
Probably one of the most laudable steps taken by the Rudd government has been the attention given by Senator John Faulkner as Special Minister of State to cleaning up the electoral system. Admittedly, this isn’t one of the funky and sexy issues the media likes to highlight, but the importance of the Green Paper on Electoral Reform is profound.
But while most Australians probably had other things on their mind, John Howard’s former Workplace Relations advisor and Alexander Downer’s replacement as Mayo MP, Jamie Briggs, found time on Boxing Day to denounce third party campaigns as a “a growing cancer in our democracy”.
Briggs named GetUp! and the ACTU’s Your Rights at Work campaign as examples of what he was talking about.
I don’t have any particular problem with disclosure of funding for third party campaigns, though I would object to caps on donations. But the hyperbole from Briggs (and no doubt his views are shared by Nick Minchin and others) is absurd and dangerous. Props to Andrew Norton for sounding the alarm. Norton refers to Briggs’ call for disclosure and observes:
Continue reading ‘The vigilance of (il)Liberalism never sleeps’
With all the attention on the role of Brendon Grylls and the Nationals as the kingmakers in the WA election result, the improvement in the Greens’ vote has slipped under the radar somewhat. Counting subsequent to election night has seen their vote climb to almost 12% of the Legislative Assembly total according to the WAEC (which is interestingly slightly higher than the Greens’ vote in the Legislative Council).
But, if the Fin Review is to be believed, the significance of a 4% plus swing to the Greens hasn’t escaped the attention of ALP wonks. “Labor hardheads” are quoted by the paper as concerned by the vote in Fremantle, and the implications for the seats of Federal Ministers such as Lindsay Tanner, Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek. “Labor strategists” are cited as concerned about a drift away among “left-leaning voters”.
This is hardly rocket science. Any modern managerialist ALP government is bound to disappoint at least some left voters after the initial euphoria of a Tory defeat has worn off. And the Greens nationally are going to have a much bigger profile with a balance of power role in the Senate and new Senators who may develop a high profile. The article, however, leaves us none the wiser as to how “Labor strategists” think their party should respond.
Continue reading ‘Greens back in the spotlight after the WA election?’
The new Senate is our focus in this iteration of a new feature on our website – Project Democracy. That’s nice because, on the organisation’s third birthday, this returns GetUp! to our initial emphasis on making the Senate a genuine house of review. (We’ll bring the Reps on-stream later). PD brings a new emphasis on offering tools for political engagement alongside GetUp’s established practice of campaigning on issues that matter to Australians. We hope it will make our representatives less remote from all of us – we all know that Senators can sometimes appear slightly detached from their State-wide contituencies.
The site will include a number of tools that we hope will break down some of the barriers in Australian political life – between citizens, and between communities and their representatives. PD rolls together a number of features that might be familiar from other places. But by putting them together, we hope we’ll be more of a “one-stop shop” for citizen engagement with the parliament, and building local activist networks.
Continue reading ‘Guest post by Jason Wilson: GetUp!’s Project Democracy’
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