Media Releases

SLOMO’S NEW CLIMATE APPOINTMENT AN ATTEMPT TO DISTRACT FROM ATROCIOUS RECORD

13 April 2021

SLOMO’S NEW CLIMATE APPOINTMENT AN ATTEMPT TO DISTRACT FROM ATROCIOUS RECORD
 

The Government has dropped to the media the internal promotion of a public servant in the Prime Minister’s department and addition of ‘climate coordinator’ to his title. 
 
This will be one of several attempts over the next week to greenwash the Morrison Government’s atrocious record on climate change action ahead of the U.S. Climate Summit. 
 
Morrison’s inaction is causing headaches with some of our most important allies, the US and the UK, and is a risk to our trade-exposed industries.
 
Unnamed Liberal MPs are giving the game away when they say in today’s article that it’s important to look like they’re taking climate change seriously.
 
That says it all really. 

Like everything else with the Morrison Government, it’s all about spin.
 
James Larsen is charged with delivering the long-term emissions reduction strategy. But what we need is political leadership. Leadership Scott Morrison is incapable of providing.
 
This is the same strategy that was supposedly being ‘developed’ two years ago, was due for delivery last year, and now won’t be delivered until the end of 2021.
 
The globe’s climate emergency is Australia’s jobs opportunity - and Australian lives and livelihoods deserve more substance and less Morrison spin.
 
In a post saying ‘We are building & investing in renewable energies at record levels’, a Government department was caught yesterday using footage from overseas wind and solar farm projects to try to spruik Australia’s ‘record’.
 
Labor isn’t interested in claiming other countries’ work as our own.
 
Labor wants investment in large renewable projects to happen locally – employing Australian workers, using Australian products, and lowering electricity prices for families.
 
That’s why we built the CEFC, that’s why we’ve committed to a $15B National Reconstruction Fund, Net Zero by 2050, and Rewiring the Nation – because Australian jobs depend on getting this right. 
 
It’s past time for organising the deck chairs and time for action.