Firstly, congratulations to the new Member for Aston, Mary Doyle, for Labor’s historic win in last Saturday’s by-election, and a brickbat to Mark Latham for his insensitive and over-the-top reaction to a fellow NSW independent MP. I always believe you should play the ball, not the man in politics. Latham is certainly a highly capable tough conviction politician, but he exudes a certain nervous tension which has, it seems, manifested itself in the past by him being inappropriately overly aggressive.
The recent sweeping energy deal struck between Anthony Albanese, Adam Bandt and crossbenchers including David Pocock will, in the words of Japanese gas giant Impex CEO Takayuki Ueda, “choke investment, strangle expansion of LNG projects and allow Russia, China and Iran to fill the void”. He was joined at a special meeting with the federal government at Parliament House by the Japanese ambassador, who also delivered a stinging rebuke of the government’s energy and gas policy. These two gentlemen warned against rushing the net zero emissions transition.
Australia supplies 70 per cent of the coal, 60 per cent of the iron ore and 40 per cent of the gas Japan needs. We keep the lights on in Tokyo.
The Greens leader Adam Bandt gloated after the deal with Labor that most of the 155 new gas and coal projects in the pipeline would now not go ahead. Such an attitude is insanity writ large.
Apart from the loss of jobs and the flow-on effect to thousands of small businesses in Australia, the stopping of such projects will have diddly squat effect on climate change. Indeed, it will cause a net rise in emissions as countries that bought Australian gas and coal will now buy from other countries whose coal especially emits twice as many emissions as ours. So Albanese, Bandt, Pocock and co. will have actually contributed to an increase in emissions worldwide.
By Australia going down this path, we are also helping the authoritarian states, especially Russia. Surely no one in the federal parliament wants to help Russia in its barbaric war against the people of Ukraine. These policies are already raising questions amongst our allies in the Quad, Japan and India, as to whether we can continue to be regarded as a reliable economic partner.
Australian clean coal is helping bring 300 million Indians out of poverty. I find it offensive to think the misguided policies by no doubt well-meaning people like Pocock are frustrating these efforts and contributing to more global warming.
This disastrous agreement between Labor and the cross bench has the very real potential to destroy our well-earned reputation as a safe, reliable trading partner and place to invest in.
A strong Japan and an India growing in strength and wealth are good for the free world. As a fellow Quad member, we should help them both and at the same time help ourselves.
