[Graeme]

How Climate Change Became A Major Factor In Australia’s Upcoming Election

It’s election season in Australia and, unlike in the U.S., climate change is a major issue.

On September 7 Australians will choose between the two presidential candidates (they’re really just party leaders, per the parliamentary system, but they campaign like presidential candidates). Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia and the leader of the liberal-leaning Labor Party, is pitted against Tony Abbott, leader of the opposition center-right Liberal Party and head of the Coalition, a formal alliance of broadly center-right parties. Labor is fighting to stay in office after six tumultuous years, and is viewed as a slight underdog with most polls showing a close race.

The Situation On The Ground

The economy and climate change are two of the key issues going into the election. Climate change-related events have battered Australia so severely in recent years that many of them have their own names: the Big Dry, the Black Saturday Bushfires and the Angry Summer to name a few. In the last 10 months Australia has recorded its hottest day on record, hottest week on record, hottest month on record and hottest summer on record.

Climate change has started to impact everything from ski season to wine production Down Under. The economic toll of all this is severe. Combine that with the fact that Australia is a leading emitter of greenhouse gases (Australia’s per capita CO2 emissions are nearly twice the OECD average and more than four times the world average) due to its economic reliance on fossil fuels — especially coal and gas exports — and you get a perennial hot button issue.

thinkprogress

[Shaved Monkey]

Climate change has barely been mentioned.
Rupert Murdoch controls 75% of the media and he has no interest in climate change just regime change.
Front pages of his papers have been massively anti Labor along with his tweets.
He has a fear that Labors National Broadband Network with fast internet speeds connecting everyone in the country for free,will kill his Cable TV and other media interests.
As the election is decided by the marginal working class mortgage belts of Western Sydney.
They earn good money, but are in debt up to they eyeballs,they have been told to hate the carbon tax, they dont need fast internet and there are too many refugees arriving by boat that will get hand outs, while they struggle and they read Uncle Rupert's Papers more than anyone else.

Democracy in Australia is decided by a right wing billionaire American citizen.

[dissident]

Climate change has barely been mentioned.
Rupert Murdoch controls 75% of the media and he has no interest in climate change just regime change.
Front pages of his papers have been massively anti Labor along with his tweets.
He has a fear that Labors National Broadband Network with fast internet speeds connecting everyone in the country for free,will kill his Cable TV and other media interests.
As the election is decided by the marginal working class mortgage belts of Western Sydney.
They earn good money, but are in debt up to they eyeballs,they have been told to hate the carbon tax, they dont need fast internet and there are too many refugees arriving by boat that will get hand outs, while they struggle and they read Uncle Rupert's Papers more than anyone else.

Democracy in Australia is decided by a right wing billionaire American citizen.

Pathetic. The sheeple should wake up everywhere and not just Australia about the facts pertaining to the so-called and self-called "free" media. It's a f*cking mouthpiece and sings in a chorus. Exactly the same reporting on assorted issues at the same time from allegedly different companies and journalists. There is no way this amount of synchronization would exist given the complexity of so many issues (e.g. Egypt) if the media was truly diverse and free.

[SeaGypsy]

There are plenty of cracks in the Murdoch agenda- it's quite enjoyable seeing him squirm- under direct pressure from free media. His Pay to View campaign hinged on people being willing to pay to read his stable of writer's words- like 'yeah right' there's nothing special about his writers so it's a no brainer. He's having to shrink his formats for newspapers, his wife has given up, his senior staff in London are going to jail, life is looking surprisingly grim for the senior citizen.

Labour f&ked up the Carbon tax- primarily through it's go it alone stance on pricing- which no surprise at about 4 times the European offset price- with nobody else in the world paying- extraordinarily unpopular. If they get back in they have committed to put the Carbon price in line with the Euro model, but it's a promise made very late in a campaign where most people have seen major jumps in utilities costs while most don't really understand climate science or why Australia should be taking the lead by 'taxing hell out of Carbon'.

The boat people/ asylum seeker/ refugee question has rated second only behind general economic questions. Of course many people think this is a beat up- not me. Australia is extremely multicultural compared globally, the social cohesion hinges on a collective acceptance of the immigration process. There is not a collective acceptance of 'anyone who shows up from a sad place wanting asylum can have permanent residency and social security and family reuniting visas etc. The fact 90% are male and they are actually the richest least threatened people in their home cultures is overlooked by the 'Greens'; as is the sheer weight of numbers at the 'push' end of the refugee equation. (This issue has been extremely divisive).

The polling suggests we will have a new government- Carbon tax scrapped, penalty rate wages scrapped (this one is going to cause a lot of mayhem in hospitality and nursing), broadband only for the capitals, 'stop the boats' (whatever it takes) and a gung-ho pro mining low tax deal for the multinationals. Happy days.