Greens elders Brown and Milne say emissions target debate not as important as coal exports

Australian Greens elders Bob Brown and Christine Milne have dismissed negotiations between current leader Adam Bandt and Labor over a minimum 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 as little more than “symbolic”.

Brown, the founding leader of the Australian Greens, and Milne, his successor, said the real and bigger problem was the federal government’s insistence on retaining coal and gas exports as essential to the Australian economy.

Former Greens leaders Christine Milne and Bob Brown with current leader Adam Bandt in 2011. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Brown offered no criticism of the likelihood that the Greens would accept the 43 per cent, despite Bandt’s earlier calls for a 75 per cent cut by 2030 and net zero by 2035.

The Greens have been under pressure to pass the Albanese government’s climate bill, in part because in 2009, when the party was helmed by Brown, it voted twice with the Coalition to defeat then prime minister Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme, citing its lack of ambition.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard’s carbon price, subsequently legislated, survived less than three years.

Brown on Thursday described Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s comments this week about coal as “Morrison-era” views.

With the Coalition set to vote against Labor’s Climate Change Bill, Labor has been in talks with the Greens, whose support it will need in the Senate. It has so far agreed to make clear in the bill that its 2030 emissions reduction target of 43 per cent is a minimum only, but has rejected some of the Greens’ biggest demands such as phasing out coal and gas exports.

Milne said the debate over the bill was “like living in the Truman Show” – a reference to a movie in which a man exists in an artificial town, cut off from the rest of the world, his every move filmed for a reality TV show.

While the government refused to count exports of coal and gas in its emissions reduction strategy, Milne said the climate debate had become an “artificial reality”, as if fossil fuel emissions only affected people overseas.

“The whole brouhaha is a confected political ploy,” Milne said in an interview.

She said she was not privy to the negotiations between Bandt and Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and did not wish to comment on Bandt’s efforts to strike what appears likely to be a deal on a minimum 43 per cent emissions cut on 2005 levels by 2030.

However, she said 43 per cent was in effect locked in by international agreements before the talks began, so debate about the figure was no more than symbolic.

Labor’s campaign promise to reach for an 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 was much more important, she said, yet was not even part of the discussion.

Brown also described the 43 per cent number as “very largely symbolic”.

“We could probably get to this figure while doing business as usual,” he said.

Brown stressed he was no longer the Greens leader and was not intervening in the negotiating process.

“They’re [Bandt’s Greens] showing they want a better deal and are willing to work towards it,” Brown said. “Negotiations are continuing and these are early days.

“There are three years of this term yet to go, and I have no doubt there are good things to come from the efforts of the Greens and the teals [independents].”

Brown reserved his criticism for Albanese, declaring himself surprised and disappointed that the prime minister had argued so strongly to continue exporting fossil fuels.

These were “Morrison-era” views and unworthy of a modern prime minister, he said.

“We’re sharing the atmosphere and climate change with the entire planet and it’s our coal and gas that is being burnt,” Brown said.

Albanese told ABC TV’s 7.30 program this week that if Australia halted its exports, other countries would fill the trade.

“If Australia today said we are not going to export any more coal, what you would see is a lot of jobs lost, you would see a significant loss to our economy, significantly less taxation revenue for education, health and other services, and that coal wouldn’t lead to a reduction in global emissions,” Albanese said on Tuesday.

“What you would see is a replacement with coal from other countries that’s likely to produce higher emissions because of the quality of our product.”

However, in what was seen as an olive branch to the Greens, Labor agreed this week to insert an amendment to the Climate Change Bill that makes it more challenging for key government agencies to spend public money on coal and gas projects.

Brown was the first leader of the Australian Greens in the federal parliament from 2005. Milne was his deputy from 2008 until she succeeded him as leader in 2012.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.

Most Viewed in Politics

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article