So after all my letters to our esteemed Prime Minister I've been neglecting his State colleagues here in Queensland. Of course, they are making a better fist of climate policy than Scomo and his mob, but that's not saying much. So I thought that in this new era of Commonwealth/State cooperation (and with an eye to our State election which is just around the corner) I would adapt my latest missive for the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Dear Premier
I trust you and your
family and loved ones are well and thriving through the COVID crisis.
I would like to thank
and congratulate you and your government, along with your State and
Commonwealth colleagues, on your astute handling of this crisis. It’s been reassuring to see the speed and
effectiveness with which our governments have reacted, and the success this has
brought about in keeping the number of infections low. No doubt there is a long way to go and there
will be twists and turns along the way, but so far so good.
To me, your success
rests on four foundations.
1. You have placed expert advice at the centre of your
response, following the recommendations of medical experts and giving them
voice in explaining the responses.
2. You have worked cooperatively with the Commonwealth and
other State governments via the National Cabinet, pooling advice and agreeing
on responses.
3. You have worked to ensure that those negatively
affected by the response have protection through the Commonwealth jobkeeper and
jobseeker payments and your own government’s programs to help people like those
who are homeless to weather the storm.
4. You have operated within a framework of international
cooperation, both through our membership of the WHO and bilaterally through
arrangements like research partnerships to test potential vaccines and
treatments.
In acting in this way,
we have taken important steps to protect our older people and others in
vulnerable situations. These include my
parents-in-law, who still live independently in their 90s, and also your parents
and your grandmother. Your actions have
made them and all those in their generation safer, and spared many people the
grief of losing loved ones prematurely.
Over the past year, I
have written several letters to the Prime Minister on the subject of our
climate crisis. I have done so, of
course, because the Commonwealth Government’s performance on climate change has
been distressingly negligent. By
contrast, your government has always acknowledged the reality of the problem
and has put policies in place in both the short and long term to address the
issue.
On the other hand,
your government undermines its own success by continuing to promote new coal and
gas projects, despite the fact that the climate crisis makes it imperative for
us to move rapidly away from these fuel sources. I understand that the end of fossil fuels is
a hard message to sell in regional Queensland, but a managed transition, with
viable alternative industries in these regional communities, is the only way to
balance the real economic needs of communities with the imperative of avoiding
dangerous levels of climate change.
Of course I recognise
that your task is not made any easier by the Commonwealth’s recalcitrance. However, our nation’s capable handling of the
pandemic has reminded me that it is certainly not beyond us to respond to this
issue and to make difficult changes.
Indeed, the same four foundations can serve this purpose as well.
1. Placing experts at the centre.
We have a vast amount of research at our disposal about climate change – both
what is happening now, and what to do about it.
The research into what is happening now is sobering and should convince
us to take this seriously, just as the information about COVID-19 has. Yet unlike COVID, climate change has been
known about for several decades and there is a vast amount of research into how
to respond, whether this is the AEMO’s integrated system plan to re-orient our
electricity system towards renewables, the rapid development of electric
vehicles and the importance of public and active transport, the immense
economic opportunities represented by liquid hydrogen, and the multitude of
ways to reorient our agriculture to make it more resilient and less polluting. And so much more - let’s start doing it!
2. Cooperative national arrangements. On climate change our State governments, whatever the colour of
their coats, are well ahead of the Commonwealth, committing to net zero targets
and having clear strategies in place. It
would make perfect sense to me to keep the National Cabinet in place and make
climate change its next order of priority, acting with the same decisiveness
and bipartisanship that has been on display in the past few months.
3. Protecting those who are vulnerable. There is no question that the transition will be hard for workers
in some industries and in some communities, and also that even if we succeed in
limiting climate change some communities will face difficult adaptation
strategies. This why we need a
transition strategy that focuses on economic development for communities and
workers affected by the closure of fossil fuel-based industries, and an
adaptation strategy for communities affected by increased risk of drought, fire
or flood.
4. Working within international systems. Like COVID-19, climate
change does not respect borders and combating it requires international
cooperation. In the Paris Accord we have
a system in place to do this, but it is only as good as the nations that
participate in it. As a major producer
of fossil fuels and a key ally of the world’s two largest polluters, Australia
is in a position to wield influence in this forum well above our size. Let’s use that to accelerate the global
response, not hold it back.
The economic recovery
that needs to come after the COVID-19 shut-down represents a key decision-point
in these efforts. Organisations as
diverse as the IMF and the Australian Industry Group have been talking about a
‘clean recovery’, one that stimulates our economy while focusing on the
industries that are sustainable and responsible in a warming world. This includes accelerating the development
and infrastructure needed for our transition to renewable electricity,
development of liquid hydrogen, and priority for funding of public transport
networks and walking and cycling infrastructure in our cities. What we definitely don’t need is a ‘gas-led
recovery’ which buys some short-term economic gains at the cost of ongoing
emissions for decades to come.
2020 has been a
watershed year in the governance of our nation.
It will certainly be tempting to go back to ‘business as usual’ as the
current crisis eases, and to revive partisan politics and short-term thinking,
especially with our State election just a few months away. Yet the COVID-19 crisis has shown us just how
much better our governments operate when these things are set aside. Of course there will always be differences,
these are part and parcel of genuine democracy, but in the face of crises like
COVID-19 or climate change the wellbeing of the nation requires that we work
together.
In the case of
COVID-19, we have set aside our differences in order to protect our older
people. In the case of climate change,
we will be acting decisively to protect our children. These include my two grandsons, aged 3 and
6. I know you’re not a parent yourself
but I am sure there are children in your life who you love and whose future you
hold in your heart and would do anything in your power to secure. We need to act to protect their futures. We have shown that we can, now let’s get on
with it.
Yours sincerely
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