Governments were generally caught short by COVID-19. Scott Morrison boasts that he saw it earlier, and acted quicker and more decisively, than most – that he relied on medical and scientific advice, forged a “national” response, ignored ideology.

But his government has a split personality on the need to rely on science. It so easily ignores climate science, still swayed by a small rump of Coalition deniers.

In a sense, the experience of the pandemic is a dress rehearsal of what will happen with climate, if governments continue to ignore the science. There had been imprecise warnings of possible pandemics, but these had been ignored. Climate science is far more substantive, peer-assessed and uniform than that relied on to support the COVID responses; the predicted catastrophic weather events have become more frequent and more intense, and over decades.

 

Multinational corporations have captured the national polity and continue to push last-century energy solutions on Australia, in defiance of sound policy and due process. The US fracking industry has collapsed. Yet the Covid Commission forges ahead with coal seam gas plans for Santos at Narrabri. Callum Footereports.

As if a tradie-led recovery wasn’t bizarre enough, the COVID Commission and Liberals and Nationals in NSW are forging ahead with plans to open up Narrabri for coal seam gas fracking.

This is despite:

• warnings only a day ago that the global glut could force natural gas prices into negative;
• the science telling us clearly that for the sake of the planet we need to move on from fossil fuels, especially given that renewable energy can compete on cost with oil, coal and natural gas-fired power plants;
• figures showing that fugitive emissions from natural gas production are driving massive increases in greenhouse gas; and
• the fact that domestic gas users are massively price gouged because the East Coast gas market is controlled by a cartel of three producers, Santos, Origin Energy and Exxon/BHP, who starve the domestic market to force up prices and make super profits  Meanwhile overseas buyers of Australian gas pay far less than the domestic buyers do.

The Member for Barwon, Roy Butler today carried the historic Coal Seam Gas Moratorium Bill in the NSW Parliament’s Legislative Assembly.

“Much will be made of me carrying the CSG Moratorium Bill, but it should not surprise to people that I have followed through on my commitment to not support any extractive industry that puts water, our most precious resource at risk,” said Mr Butler. 

“I committed to do it through the campaign, and I kept my word.

Hi Folks, 

A belated Happy Easter! I hope you all got some time with family or friends, and spent time doing things that brings you happiness and contentment. 

The floods in Sydney, Moree and the Coast have been devastating. There is no getting away from the property damage and economic cost of this incident. The good news for us is that rainfall in our own catchment and flows out of Queensland should see some of the best river flows in years. Well over 500GL should hit Menindee, it’s my priority that water is retained in Menindee to protect the lower Darling for as long as possible. I have asked the Minister to review the 480GL/640GL rule that transfers control of Menindee Lakes to the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) when storage is over 640GL. These discussions are ongoing. 

Riverina-based farmer research group Riverine Plains has appointed well known agricultural leader Catherine Marriott as its first CEO.

Hi Folks, 

A belated Happy Easter! I hope you all got some time with family or friends, and spent time doing things that brings you happiness and contentment. 

The floods in Sydney, Moree and the Coast have been devastating. There is no getting away from the property damage and economic cost of this incident. The good news for us is that rainfall in our own catchment and flows out of Queensland should see some of the best river flows in years. Well over 500GL should hit Menindee, it’s my priority that water is retained in Menindee to protect the lower Darling for as long as possible. I have asked the Minister to review the 480GL/640GL rule that transfers control of Menindee Lakes to the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) when storage is over 640GL. These discussions are ongoing. 

Member for Barwon Roy Butler has expressed his disappointment and concerns over Santos gaining conditional approval for its controversial Narrabri coal-seam gas project in NSW.

“I’d rather that the project was not approved,” said Mr. Butler.