20.4 C
Byron Shire
March 18, 2024

Editorial – Fossil fools buy seats at leadership table

Latest News

Floodplain Mullumbimby

Mullumbimby is a floodplain. Every time we have a heavy downpour I am up and down through the night,...

Other News

Water meter outrage

The Echo’s article about the Rous County Council (RCC) water meter flowback prevention device was very timely. We are...

Wallum Q&A with Clarence Property CEO 

Will digging frog ponds and installing nest boxes really make a difference to the damage that large-scale development will have on the rare and endangered Wallum heathland in Bruns? 

Bangalow Film Festival

There are still plenty of great films to see at the Bangalow Film Festival – highlights include Eskawatã Kayawai – The Spirit of Transformation, the story of the cultural and spiritual renaissance of the Huni Kuin people from the Brazilian Amazon forest through their connection with Ayahuasca, and Freud’s Last Session when on the eve of the Second World War, two of the greatest minds of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud converge for their own personal battle over the existence of God – both on Wednesday.

Mental health experts urge governments to act on prevention

Mental and public health experts are gathering in Melbourne today to discuss the growing number of young Australians experiencing mental illness, and encourage governments to tailor their investments in programs which help protect and promote mental wellbeing.

Action needed on affordable housing and land banking say regional city Mayors

Regional Cities NSW mayors have called on the state government to take action on the worsening housing crisis outside of Sydney as they call for affordable housing and a way to stop developers land banking.

Time for change

National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Byron Shire Council (BSC) have agreed to close Tyagarah clothing-optional area on...

The dirtier and more dangerous your business is, the more you need to spend to get the political result you want. Fossil-fuel dinosaurs excited about a lump of coal.

David Lovejoy, Echo co-founder

Conspiracy theories abound these days. Most of them are feeble balloons that can be popped with one or two sharp facts, but a few contain some truth.

As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. My conspiracy theory is the Morrison government’s commitment to fossil fuel.

The new chair of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee, which is responsible for ensuring the integrity of projects that get climate funding, is David Byers, whose resume includes the Minerals Council of Australia, BHP, and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.

Joining him on the committee is Dr Brian Fisher, an economist whose wildly overestimated costs of alternative energy have been uncritically promoted by the Murdoch press.

These are not the only committee members from the fossil fuel industry, and it would appear that the government is preparing the ground for granting the industry more climate funding.

Public coal-fondling may be out of fashion, but Morrison remains committed to the interests of corporations whose activities are literally burning up our future.

This is because those corporations give substantial financial support to political parties.

The reason they do so is not rocket science. If your industry pollutes the environment by, say, poisoning aquifers and emitting carbon dioxide, it is likely to collide with regulations established to control such behaviour.

The regulations cost you money, but for a fraction of that lost profit you can buy a corrupt government and write your own industry-friendly regulations.

The dirtier and more dangerous your business is, the more you need to spend to get the political result you want.

Hence, it is executives from the very worst companies who become the dining companions and puppet masters of government ministers.

Journalist George Monbiot has dubbed this process the ‘Pollution Paradox’: if you let business fund politics, what you get is the very worst of business funding the very worst of politics.

It is not just fossil fuel companies that have the regulatory itch. Bankers don’t like having their prey protected by red tape. Developers don’t like planning laws. Employers could do without a workplace code.

Media barons have particular influence over the governments that are supposed to regulate them, not just in donations but in news manipulation.

And all of these funders of political parties hate paying tax and have persuaded most governments to agree with them.

But only in the most damaging of all industries, fossil fuel extraction, has the identification of corporations with government become so great that our National Covid Coordination Commission, designed to mend the economy, is stacked with shills from gas companies, and the committee to check that funds to reduce carbon emissions are properly spent is chaired by a fossil fuel careerist.

Outlawing business donations to political parties would be the single most effective way to reform our system of government.

News tips are welcome: [email protected]


Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Well, I Never !
    Such a cynical take on the valiant, honest lawyers that have taken on the responsibility of directing this country for the benefit of all Australian citizens, with no thought of their own self enrichment. I have lost count of the numbers who have openly admitted that they don’t the job for the paltry hundreds of thousands in salary, nor the lurks and perks of unlimited expense accounts and travel opportunities, often for the rest of their lives. No, not these brave and trusty men and women would never countenance back-handers and inducements from billionaires, who stand to benefit by unimaginably massive amounts by their eager rush to facilitate the theft of public resources, for the benefit of foreign interests.
    So there you have it David, I’m sure that I have dispelled any malicious musings and misconceptions.
    ….and remember, Don’t frighten the horses. G”)

  2. Commitment to fossil fuel’s a joke. The new chair of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee is (goodness gracious
    me) one of the coal-kissing sharks. Everyone of the ‘breed’ wants a cracker while Fisher, a Murdoch mantra – follows in the
    old man’s footsteps. Yes, we will gift all the hand-picked bell ringers climate funding. Poor beggars; they are in need of help.
    They share the same bed that’s barrel fed infested: – who said that pigs don’t fly or fry.

  3. When political parties are bought by Fossil Fuel Industry bribes and donations the payback is these cushy appointments that further still, the interests of the Fossil Fuel Industry. It’s a corrupted process but the voters largely don’t give a toss, just like with with corruption and malfeasance of RoboRobberyDebt, SpRorts and Badgerys Creek Triangle that ScottyfromMarketing evades and avoids, the dirt of scandal never sticks to the dude.

  4. In Qld’s last State election the biggest donor was New Hope. They are the coal mining company fighting community group Oakey Coal Action Alliance for their expansion of the Acland coal mine up on the Darling Downs (community struggle is documented in the great little film Your Water, My Water by Wendy Rogers). New Hope gave $660K to Qld political parties!

  5. Allowing the fossil fuel industry to advise our government on climate protection, air pollution and emissions reductions planning is like allowing the tobacco and asbestos industry to advise our health ministers on smoking reduction and cancer prevention.

  6. Or wash out big business money with democracy dollars, as proposed by Yang and avoid the ‘money is freedom of speech’ precedent.

  7. Hi. I’ve been thinking for a long time that if individuals and corporations could by law only contribute $10 each per year to political parties etc then the politicians would have to go back to the old ways of door knocking and standing on the back of a truck on the Main Street to get their message across and answer questions. Without the power of the mass media perhaps we could have a return to true democracy or at least it would be a good start.
    I’m sure there would be many reasons brought on by politicians why this couldn’t work like security issues but to save true democracy we need to start somewhere.

  8. Bullseye, David. I well remember in the mid 50s line-ups of polly contenders outlining their beliefs outside pubs
    & in main streets on Sunday evenings. So easy to put a face to a name & assess his or her answers to multiple
    questions. Now we have ‘undercover placements’ designed by power brokers & look-alike looters who refuse
    to answer current & future goings-on. Ten bob donations says it all.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Time to tape up

Could I suggest that all flood-affected residents in Mullumbimby turn up to the Byron Council chambers by 8.30am for the next meeting on 14...

Two charged following alleged pursuit – Ballina

About 12.20am (Thursday 14 March 2024), police from Richmond PD Highway Patrol attempted to stop an allegedly stolen Ford Focus on the M1 Motorway at West Ballina.

NSW bans offshore mining and exploration for gas and oil

The NSW Labor government has now banned offshore mining and exploration for gas and oil in NSW waters. NSW is the first state to...

Extreme slip site on Tyalgum Road needs further work leading to road closure

The current work site on Tyalgum Road slip site has slipped further, after heavy rains affected both the site itself and the slope above the site.