Anthony Albanese’s recent performance on the world stage in New York was a breathtaking piece of rhetorical acrobatics.
Even while lecturing other world leaders, in the United Nations, he was somehow able to separate Australia’s renewable progress at home from our role as one of the great global atmospheric polluters, via fossil fuel exports, which have remained at near record levels under his government’s watch. It is the most cynical of accounting tricks.
Speaking at Climate Week, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Australia’s prime minister praised firefighters and other frontline defenders in our warming world and said that ‘as leaders, we must match their bravery’. He noted that Australia’s domestic emissions were slowing, with renewables and home battery uptake rapidly expanding, and new wind and solar set to power 6 million homes.
Australia’s internal transformation in the direction of renewable energy, while laudable in many ways, is of no consolation to our Pacific neighbours, who are in the firing line of increasingly powerful storms and rising seas. We are also feeling the sting of the climate crisis, via record-breaking fires and floods, with much more extreme impacts on the horizon.
Since Anthony Albanese was elected in May 2022, 37 new, expanded or extended coal, oil and gas projects have been approved by Labor, leading to estimated lifetime emissions of 6.5 billion tonnes of CO2. This trend is showing no sign of slowing, with a massive Hunter Valley coal extension expected to be greenlit this week.
If gas is the transition fuel, as has been claimed, why are new coal mines opening and others expanding, such as BHP’s Saraji Mine last week? If solar and wind is the future, why is more fracked gas being exported from Australia than ever before, such as from the newly opened Beetaloo Basin?
Empty words
In his second speech of the week, to the UN General Assembly, Anthony Albanese described climate change as one of three massive challenges facing the world, which was threatening the ‘very existence’ of Australia’s island neighbours, arguing that we deserved a temporary seat on the non-permanent UN Security Council in order to amplify the voices of smaller states.
Between his speeches, Albo posed for smiling selfies with a man who’s made no secret of his disdain for the UN, or for climate science, and is currently doing more than any other to destroy life on Earth, in pursuit of short term profit for him and his cronies.
At the same time, a tropical storm near Mexico was developing into a category 5 hurricane (faster than any recorded), while another headed for Hawaii, both driven by a rapidly heating ocean. A monsoon depression over the Bay of Bengal caused floods that killed many people in India and Nepal, with nine times the usual amount of rain for the period.
In New York, soon after the heads of state went home, flooding and high winds caused a state of emergency, with 119,000 homes losing power and 400 flights cancelled.
Think about a dozen Hiroshima bombs worth of man-made energy going into the world’s atmosphere and oceans every second, and then think about the pathetic response of our political ‘leaders’.
What is Labor’s problem?
The insights of ex-Labor insiders like Sean Kelly (his recent Quarterly Essay on Labor’s values is highly recommended) suggest that Anthony Albanese’s avoidance of fights with powerful entrenched interests, fundamental conservatism, and silencing of his own party’s progressive voices may be necessary for his government’s political survival at this deeply dangerous and unstable time, while at the same time making it incapable of dealing with the real challenges facing the country, including rising inequality, technological disruption and the climate emergency.
Fighting Tories apparently now means becoming a Tory in many of the ways that matter, including on AUKUS, ASIO and fossil fuel exports. With the opposition increasingly abandoning reality entirely in a race to the bottom with One Nation, perhaps this is the best we can hope for?
There have been flashes of courage from the Albanese government, such as with the Voice referendum and in taking on the social media giants (drawing the outrage of the United States in recent days), but it’s hard to see how ‘steady as she goes’ is a justifiable response to the multiple crises assembling on Australia’s doorstep.
If the choice comes down to power without much in the way of progress, or doing the right thing and getting chucked out at the next election, the current incarnation of the federal ALP has firmly chosen option one, with incremental improvements perhaps adding up to something in the fullness of time, if we’re lucky.
More likely though, unless Labor remembers what it’s supposed to stand for, we will continue our slide in the same disastrous direction as the United States.
Anthony Albanese is due to for his next excruciating encounter with Donald Trump on 20 October in Washington.
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.
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