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The decision by the Australian National University to end its investment in fossil fuels is a bellwether moment for Australia. It’s democracy up against crony capitalism, science up against ideology and renewable energy against the old polluting industries.
Tony Abbott’s derision of ANU as “stupid” is a raw ideological refusal to face three key facts:
1. If we are to constrain global warming to less than two degrees, Australia’s remaining fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned. Not by any country, not ever.
2. Australians are already experiencing the effects of climate change, through more frequent and intense extreme weather events. We must stop it getting worse.
3. People can take control of their power bills, take control of their money, and they don’t need to wait for governments.
While climate policy is being torn apart and emissions that came down under the carbon price are going up again, it’s heartening to see that thousands of Australians already know they can take the power back. National Divestment Day events are underway today in Hobart, Lismore, Ballina, Geraldton, Maroochydoore and Darwin, with more tomorrow in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Coffs Harbour.
The divestment movement is putting the Abbott government on notice. People are voting with their wallets - as are churches like the Uniting Church and the Perth diocese of the Anglican Church, and super funds like Local Government Super - all moving their money out of companies that profit from fossil fuels. Now the option is there, students can even invest their minds and fees in a uni that shares their values.
People are changing the direction of our economy, but Abbott’s only response has been to call them stupid and declare that “coal is good for humanity”. What a desperate statement from a man exposed as governing for the big end of town.
The reality is that the coal industry is where the tobacco industry was. For decades they’ve each paid PR companies to market for them and made political donations, in an effort to hide the harm their products cause. It took the world a while to wake up to the connection between cigarette companies and the failure of governments to act against them, but now with fossil fuels, people like former Liberal leader John Hewson are beginning to ask the right questions. Who influences the Abbott government? The Minerals Council of Australia? The mining companies themselves? People know that Peabody has paid Burson-Marsteller to do the PR on coal.
The sad fact is that Australia is no longer a democracy, it is a plutocracy. Abbott’s is a government for the rich, by the rich. People are sick of the revolving door between government and business. It must end.
With Clive Palmer’s help, Abbott has repealed our emissions trading scheme, which was hailed by the International Energy Agency as template legislation for the rest of the world. He has defunded the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, leaving it unable to support any new projects. He has trashed investor confidence with a review of the Renewable Energy Target, which could yet be saved if Labor and the Palmer United Party vote with the Greens to reject any change.
What Abbott’s efforts amount to is “economic suicide,” to quote an adviser to the German Chancellor. The divestment movement proves that Australians won’t be left behind, even if our government is determined to cling to the age of fossil fuels. It’s a bellwether moment and the pendulum is swinging away from the Abbott government, towards restoring our democracy, towards science and towards a clean energy future.
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