In a sign of further dysfunction within the Federal government over climate change policy, there are indications that Scott Morrison is now reconsidering his decision to attend the forthcoming Glasgow COP conference.
Sources, speaking on condition of strict anonymity, have revealed that the Prime Minister is unwilling to attend the Glasgow conference, fearing that he will be made an international embarrassment. The apparent change of position has arisen on the basis that the Prime Minister was under the impression that the expression ‘net zero by 2050’ was in fact a description of the extent to which his government would be taking action to address climate change.
It is understood that, during briefings by his staff regarding his forthcoming visit to Glasgow, Mr Morrison indicated that ‘Barnaby told me that all this climate action stuff was nonsense, and that we weren’t going to be doing anything about it’. Mr Morrison was also quoted as pointing out that the Liberal-Nationals were a coalition, and that his government was all about ‘keeping the coal in coalition’.
Staff within the Prime Minister’s office were apparently further dismayed to learn that their one-page summary of talking points that Mr Morrison was to use in Glasgow, has, subsequently, been printed up and distributed to the media on the basis that it states the Coalition’s policy on climate change.
Flanked by his Coalition counterparts, Senator Matt Canavan and George Christensen, Mr Morrison declared to the Canberra media that ‘we will decide what we dig out of the ground, and the circumstances in which we dig it out of the ground’. When it was put to the Prime Minister that he risked making Australia a pariah state as a result of his government’s policy on climate change, Mr Morrison stated that this was in fact the fault of the State governments of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia who had not opened up their mining resources fast enough, and that their mineral resources were the ‘most locked-up resources of any jurisdiction in the world’.
Separately, the Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg refused to comment on a financial package that the National Party has specified as a condition of giving its permission to Scott Morrison to do anything – that is, more than net zero – in relation to climate change. The package, known within the Federal government as ‘CoalKeeper’, will pay generous subsidies for companies purchasing and using coal for energy, which companies will not have to repay should the program subsequently be disbanded.
The Prime Minister made clear that he would not be making any further comment regarding the coalition’s climate change policy, or his attendance at the Glasgow conference unless Barnaby Joyce said he could do so.
