There have always been lots of people who saw nothing in politics except a bunch of windbags scoring points off each other. And a year or two back, there was a thing called anti-politics which attempted to give some kind of intellectual basis for this sentiment.
Although I’ve known lots of anti-political/apolitical people and paid attention to the discussion of anti-politics, it’s always been something I’ve viewed from the outside, and as a problem to be remedied by doing a better job of explaining the importance of political issues. I’ve often (in fact usually) been highly critical of the political positions of the major parties, but always highly engaged.
But now, I’m suddenly experiencing anti-politics from the inside. The country is on fire, and there’s no end in sight. The government is doing nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and actively promoting measures that would make things worse.
But watching the last session of Federal Parliament you wouldn’t know any of this. Angus Taylor is supposed to be the minister for emissions reduction: he’s failed miserably and lied about it continuously. But instead of discussing this, the politicians are arguing about bogus anecdotes and documents Taylor has put out as part of the culture war. Meanwhile, the government’s prime concern is to make life a bit tougher for a few hundred refugees, thereby getting the all-important win to end the year.
If this is what’s on offer, count me out.
John Quiggin 
Hmmm… banning is an absolute. Perhaps a red card until cop26? …”
“Australia scored the lowest possible rating of 0.0,”… link below. Says it all.
mrkenfabian says:
December 10, 2019 at 3:05 pm
“… Morrison’s government would be ecstatic to have global climate talks break down, …
I doubt the talks will break because of one in a hundred countries is a recalcitrant actor.
“Despite appearances to the contrary I think their denial and obstruction is on the edge of being untenable;”
Yes, and for that reason ” the lengths these obstructionists go to is indicative of their vulnerability to a swing back to responsible adults being in charge.” They would be exposed as total hypocrites. As the bushfires, drought, water etc are all tipping away from them, even the supportive msn will have a hard time defending them.
“international body can be blamed. Blameshifting is like their own special superpower, up there with social divisiveness.”. Great analogy.
Ikonoclast says:
December 10, 2019 at 6:44 pm
KT2 – “I hope we get banned.”. I now hope we are at least given a red card.
“What could happen is that Australia could become an international pariah state subjected to sanctions by the EU and other nation groupings that actually care about climate change.”. Could but I doubt it.
“Of course, that might not matter if India, China and the USA continue to not give a rat’s about climate change.”. Scary.
“We can trade our way to catastrophe with them. (Black comedy sarcasm intended.)”. It is time we sent you in to talk to McCormack. .. “As it gets drier, the fact is that many Australians are worried, but we don’t need to catastrophise things either,” McCormack said.
“Australia ranked worst of 57 countries on climate change policy“The dismissal of recent IPCC reports, the government not attending the UN Climate Action Summit in September, and the withdrawal from funding the Green Climate Fund (GCF) underpin the overall very low performance in the climate policy category.”
“Australia scored the lowest possible rating of 0.0, compared with the highest-scoring country, Portugal, which was ranked best for its climate policy at 97.8%. The report praised Portugal for its ambitious target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and a 55% emissions reduction by 2030.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/11/australia-ranked-worst-of-57-countries-on-climate-change-policy
Another comment to the Police Officers of Australia. Perhaps you have heard of my advice that you take the law in to your own hands. Many of you no doubt scoff at such an idea. But a few may say, OK the with out changes getting made faster than what the current system seems to be able to deliver our future looks very grimm. But I do not work in a national institution I work in a regional institution. To have a chance of success we need to be able to coordinate are activities on a nationwide basis. In addition to that we need to have an agreed upon national program to enact once the old system and the people who have been running it are in some way disposed of.
Well even if such an event requires national coordination you can get ahead of the game by preparing what needs to be done in your region when the time comes. If that does not come soon enough then you can put our feelers to the police in other regions to build a national movement.
As for building a national program does it not seem yet like Australia and the world has reached a point in which the urgency requires that perhaps the current system be broken first and then we worry about what to replace it with.
Has the chinese governments secret services hacked all of the world’s climate gathering devices to create a mass illusion that humanity is threatened by global warming to intice the security services of the western world in to overthrowing their own governments and imposing austerity to leave more resources for the chinese to enjoy? That would be a diabilical but plausible plan. Furthermore with more than a billion people they would surely be able to find the talent to pull of this plan without leaving a trace of evidence that they had hacked all of the data, right?
In addition to that they managed to go back in to the history of western countries and created back dated documents in university libraries and in corprate offices that make it appear that some scientists knew way back in the 19th century that CO2 was a greenhouse gas. That brilliant master stroke is what really sells the whole scenario, right?
The chinese had to carry out this diabolical plan because of the complete lack of intergrity of western politcal institutions. It is claimed that people who recognize this complete lack of integrity have become radicalized extremeists of one type or another, perhaps Islamic, perhaps Maoists. But to make that claim requires a complete lack of intergrity. The charge of (anti semitic) anti western extremism is a charge that those who recognize the obvious truth are out of touch with reality.
But this embarrasing lack of integrity on the part of western politcal institutions was not sufficient to move anyone to take action to put an end to it. No those pillars of the establishment, the levels of management from O4 through O6 and their civilian counterparts, especially in law enforcement and the media were to comfortable to risk servng those who deserved their trust and loyalty. So they closed their eyes and served those who paid them instead.
Look where that got us.
Thanks akarog for
Desert loving trees!
@ Anonymous says:
December 13, 2019 at 1:26 pm
Fact check for discredited conspiracy theorist and cherry-picker Tony Heller (or is it Steve Goddard?)
https://climatefeedback.org/claimreview/hosted-by-former-australian-senator-tony-heller-repeats-false-claim-that-scientists-fake-the-warming-trend/
I told you to take a week off. You’re permanently banned
Do we have no protection in Australia from this trumpification – is ther no law to stop dutton ignoring seperation of powers?
Anti seperation of powers;
“Minister [ Dutton ] accused of using federal police for political purposes after senior members appear in video spruiking plan for officers with rifles.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/17/peter-dutton-appears-with-federal-police-in-political-video-on-airport-security