The end of the year is nigh. You can tell by the scampering underway to pass bills in the Senate, last minute deals to smash nature positive laws and a few wins to appease the hungry environmental masses.
They are not the only ones hungry. These days it’s literal too.
The other night, by accident, we heard a fundraising tally room underway at a Sydney radio station to raise money for Australians going short of food. It was nauseating to hear pleas for donations and that the total pledged was close to $500,000. How many mouths would that feed and for how long?
In another reminder of the reality faced by some people, Greens firebrand Max Chandler-Mather created a poignant moment during his address at the National Press Club this week.
Asked why he still didn’t own a house, despite his nice salary as MP, Chandler-Mather said that he donates about $50,000 of his income to fund meals for people in his suburb. And it was a bit hard for a single income family such as his to buy into the area.
If you wrote off Chandler-Mather for speaking in support of building unions recently or for his high-stakes tactics to ignite housing as one of the most politically volatile topics we’ve seen, maybe it’s time to reconsider. This is a rare, if not unique, pollie, and he’ll go far –at least in impact.
The nausea about the tally room for food was reminiscent of the old Children’s Hospital charity day when it seemed the whole of Melbourne tuned into a television spectacular that urged donations for this public hospital. At the time, even then, we thought it was a disgrace that in a rich country such a fundamental human right needed to rely on charity. What were we? Americans?
Not yet. Not yet.
And yet the calls for smaller government, lower taxes and the slashing of red and green tape continue and promise to take us down the US road. As if it’s a good thing.
Already the free market ideology that new US president Donald Trump promises to fully unleash has bequeathed misery in housing and hungry people. Markets can of course be powerful incentivisers for energy and creative solutions. But like giant toddlers who don’t know their own strength, they need rules and limitations.
At present the growing call is to abandon rules (red and green tape) and let these overgrown narcissists free reign. They want gas to remain in the home and commercial kitchens because they make money from gas. They want to remove the need for quality in buildings because it’s too much trouble and too expensive. And they want to do away with the notion of public realm and public good. Times are tough and it’s a good opportunity to wind back some rules and regulations, they say.
What toddler doesn’t want all the lollies in the shop?
Big swathes of our mining industry are the most dangerous narcissists of all. They seem to assume a divine right of veto over our legal and governance frameworks.
Now the federal government has bowed to their wishes and dumped the bill for the new nature positive laws, fledgling and largely symbolic though they be.
Who do these people think they are?
What makes them think they can raid our collective treasures, haul off the proceeds for themselves with barely a “by your leave” or “if you please?
Here’s some of the best commentary we picked up by Thursday arvo
Nature positive laws
From Environmental Justice Australia the message was blunt.
“The Albanese government went to the last election promising to make our nature laws work better for environmental protection. They have broken their promise.”
“We’re in a climate and extinction crisis”
Crikey was stronger.
“Labor’s term began with promise on the environment. It ends with things worse than ever.”
The parliament ends with “a Labor government firmly in the control of the fossil fuel industry, with the ALP axing its own election commitments on the environment as our fossil fuel exports surge.”
And the coalition has regressed even further on climate ambitions than the Abbott government, the publication said.
Behind the backdown and insult to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek were Western Australia’s miners. You can well imagine WA Premier Roger Cook’s phone call to the PM with the loud outdoor voices of Gina Rinehart and pals telling Cook to sling it to the PM – “put the nature laws on ice”. But not in the Antarctica or Arctic because the ice there is melting as we speak.
The big fear in WA seemed to be an Environment Protection Authority that was to be part of the nature positive laws.
Cook had already repealed the state’s Cultural Heritage Act brought in to stop a repeat of Rio Tinto’s destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge, an Aboriginal sacred site in the Pilbara.
Which reminded us of what a missed opportunity it was for The AFR’s lethal former columnist Joe Aston to turn his talents to skewering Alan Joyce and Qantas instead of the Rio Tinto mining tycoons who have a much bigger impact on our future than an airline.
Aston was absolutely brilliant in the way he brought the destruction of the sacred sites to the national agenda. We will never forget the loud-as-hell imagery he created of the Rio Tinto boss cowering under his bed, prodding his PR out with a stick to take the flak. It didn’t work: he was soon “resigned”.
Aston, you missed your chance at our Green Emerald Awards in December and a place in the Hall of Green Greatness.
The EPA, by the way, would have had the power to fine miscreants up to $780 million and lock them up for seven years. Much more effective than a spate of public opprobrium.
It’s all part of Albanese’s clever election strategy to look as close as he can to Peter Dutton so the electorate can’t tell them apart, and have to flip a coin to vote.
Hmmm it might work, except we can see Dutton is already trying the same tactics with US president elect Donald Trump. Trying to be paper thin different.
So whaddayagunna do Mr Albanese?
Don’tchareckon you need to choose Aussie first? And put a giant brick wall between you and Dutton and Trump?
The Christmas stocking stuffer
Of course, there were some good bits of news ushered in at the last minute before Parliament shut for the year. But not without dramatics from Lidia Thorpe, parody from Murray Watt, and a “guillotine” of the bills (which you can read about here if you bring your knitting).
To stuff into our Christmas stocking there was $500 million approved for social housing retrofits – which is great news. Rewiring Australia’s executive director Dan Cass said: “Electrification is already smashing energy bills for millions of Australian consumers and this announcement will share that benefit to 50,000 households who most need it.”
There were also the Build to Rent and Help to Buy bills and a raft of Future Made in Australia amendments.
Teal Allegra Spender also made a splash during the week with some bold suggestions for tax reform – most notably for our patch, on renewables and housing.
But even though Thursday was a wrap from our pollies in parliament don’t go away – we’re not done with this year yet.
Coming (next week – if it please the gods of the cyberworld) we will launch our first new TFE Review magazine and start smashing home the next big feature on housing for March next year.