Fresh from helping derail G20 climate commitments, Scott Morrison is now gearing up to be a climate action wrecker at Glasgow.

The Prime Minister's world leader summit speech today and other interventions at the global climate summit, such as spruiking gas, have Australia promoting coal and gas at Glasgow while the rest of the world is trying to phase it out.

Alongside Russia and Saudi Arabia, Australia is continuing to play the role of global climate spoiler, undermining 2030 action to keep the world under 1.5 degrees of heating.

Following the release of Australia’s Nationally Determined Contribution, Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has joined the chorus of international criticism of Australia’s plan.

The Nationally Determined Contribution is the official governmental plan that is lodged with the UN and that Scott Morrison will be taking to Glasgow, presented to 197 other states supposedly showing Australia’s pathway to Net Zero.

Today, the Productivity Commission released their research paper: Australia’s Prison Dilemma. The paper reports that imprisonment rates have increased by more than 35% despite crime rates dropping. 

“Our legal system fails too many people. It fails First Nations people regularly, and the consequences can be a matter of life or death.” Said the Greens spokesperson for Justice, Senator Lidia Thorpe.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that arrangements for the return of international students to Australia must treat students with respect and not subject them to burdensome quarantine arrangements that will not apply to others.

Senator Faruqi said:

“The current patchwork of state and territory plans, with Commonwealth oversight, are confusing and alarming for students, and do not provide any real certainty about arrangements for students’ return.

Angus Taylor was today quoted in The Australian saying, “no affordable, practical and large-scale way exists to reduce [methane from agriculture] other than by culling herd sizes”.
 
This is simply negative politics and scaremongering. Exciting opportunities exist to tackle this problem, creating new industries and jobs. We just need to get on with it.
 

The Australian Greens have urged the Morrison-Joyce Government to join the Global Methane Pledge, saying the government’s finger pointing about cattle was hiding the real problem: coal and gas. 

The Pledge urges nations to reduce methane emissions by 30% by at least 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030, similar to the CFC pledge that saved the Ozone Layer. 

The Greens say the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Voter Integrity) Bill 2021, introduced to parliament today, is more cynical Morrison Government politicking that will make our elections less democratic.

Greens deputy leader and democracy spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said:

“These laws are pure politics, designed to fix a fictional problem dreamed up in the fevered imaginations of the most extreme right wing fantasists.

With Scott Morrison’s fraudulent plan setting us up for climate failure, Greens Leader Adam Bandt has outlined the essential components of a Net Zero strategy that will reduce emissions, protect regional communities, and meet an emissions reduction strategy consistent with the science, following a UN Emissions Gap Report showing that the gap between submitted emissions reduction targets and the required action is on track for a catastrophic 2.7 degrees of warming.

The Greens say proposed voter identification laws are a solution in search of a problem that will only serve to disenfranchise voters who are already largely excluded from the political process.

The mooted laws, which have long been championed by the far right, could wrongly exclude eligible voters, including First Nations voters, young voters, homeless or itinerant voters, and voters escaping domestic violence.

Greens deputy leader and democracy spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters said:

Greens Leader Adam Bandt says that Scott Morrison’s 2050 plan is a climate fraud and will be treated like a sick joke in Glasgow.

Mr Bandt said there is no detailed plan, just a rehash of last year’s Technology Roadmap, and up to half of the claimed emission reduction relies on offsets, accounting tricks and unproven technology.

The so-called plan has no new money, no new policies, no increase to 2030 targets and will mean more coal and gas. The Prime Minister boasted in his press conference that the plan is based on “existing policies”.