Last week the government demonstrated its flagrant disregard for science and common sense from Washington to Palau, and from Canberra to Darwin.
Anthony Albanese was in picturesque Palau for the 55th Pacific Island Forum Leaders’ Meeting, where he was joined by ministers Chris Bowen and Pat Conroy. The prime minister said, ‘Australia is a proud member of the Pacific family, and investing in the security and prosperity of our Pacific neighbours makes our region safer and our economy stronger.
‘Our engagement in the Pacific Islands Forum and our contributions to the infrastructure, regional security and climate action of the region matter more than ever before.’
At the same time, Albo’s resources minister Madeleine King was grinning like a kid opening her Christmas present early as she ceremonially switched on the gas pipeline to Darwin from the Beetaloo Basin, together with NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro. This gas represents one of the world’s major carbon bombs, which experts say cannot be burned if the planet has any chance of avoiding runaway, catastrophic climate change.
The Beetaloo basin sits under about 28,000 square kilometres of land between Katherine and Tennant Creek, containing an estimated 200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, all of which has to be fracked from sedimentary rock, leading to localised water and air pollution, and internationally exported climate catastrophe.
Australia’s low-lying Pacific neighbours are on the frontline of this undeclared war of the rich upon the poor, as were the victims of the recent Nepalese flooding disaster and those who have died in heatwaves across the world in recent months.
Australia is facing an equally deadly summer, with the current El Nino conditions predicted to be more severe than any experienced in human history.
Boots on the ground
Across the Pacific, there were more ecstatic grins, this time from Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and self-styled US Minister of War, Pete Hegseth, as they announced more US bases in Australia, more military spending, more submarine maintenance facilities and more US military boots on Australian soil.
The Australian electorate has not been asked whether it supports any of this, or AUKUS for that matter, but Richard Marles claimed without evidence that boosting Australia’s defence spending and deepening our relationship with the failing and flailing US empire had been ‘well received’.
Really? Australians want to be ever deeper in military and economic alliance with a country run by crooks and incompetents, friendly with other autocratic regimes, actively working to destabilise the world?
Marles also met with big data and AI companies in the USA, to discuss their expansion here, claiming that it was vital for Australia to work with these companies, given the role AI is expected to play on future battlefields.
ScoMo must be grinning from ear to ear as Labor continues funnelling untold amounts of money in the direction of him and his fellow revolving door travellers, all now deeply embedded in the international arms, mining and data industries.
In Canberra, former PM Paul Keating had another moment in the spotlight last week as he launched a new biography of himself and talked about impressing Queen Elizabeth with his knowledge of antique furniture. In a veiled swipe at the current Labor government, he said ‘Timidity is like a virus in the bloodstream’.
For once, Keating’s language was far too mild and off the mark. Timid is not the word to describe this government. Gutless, yes. But it’s far worse than that. How about criminally hypocritical?
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
