The Liberal Party in Australia’s parliament has a new leader.
Herald Sun Blogger and Columnist, Andrew bolt writes to me in an email:
Anthony,
This may be a first: a major political party has dumped a global warming believer as leader and replaced him with sceptic who last month called AGW “crap”. Tony Abbott has tempered his public pronouncements since, but has today become the new Liberal leader, toppling warmist Malcolm Turnbull, specifically because he was the only one of the three contenders today to promise to delay the Government’s emissions trading scheme.
Bolt adds some background:
Following up with excerpts from new Liberal leader Tony Abbott’s memoir Battlelines, released in July.
On page 171 he quotes, with approval, Bjorn Lomborg:
“Natural science has undeniably shown us that global warming is man-made and real. But just as undeniable is the economic science, which makes it clear that a narrow focus on reducing carbon emissions could leave future generations lumbered with major costs, without major cuts in temperatures.”
Abbott then adds:
“Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by Australia (on emissions trading) could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions…. Another big problem with any Australian emissions reduction scheme is that it would not make a material difference to atmospheric carbon concentrations unless the big international polluters had similar schemes. Australia accounts for about 1 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. At recent rates of growth, China’s increase in emissions in about a year could match Australia’s entire carbon dioxide output. Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by Australia could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions.”
He also questions what climate alarmists truly want:
“It’s hard to take climate alarmists all that seriously, though, when they’re as ferociously against the one proven technology that could reduce electricity emissions to zero, nuclear power, as they are in favour of urgent reduction in emissions. For many, reducing emissions is a means to achieving a political objective they could not otherwise gain.”
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Lest you think that Climategate had nothing to do with this political shift, please read what Bolt had to say about its impact in my previous post:
The Australian ETS vote: a political litmus test for cap and trade
Several MPs have indeed mentioned the emails in their party room speeches, and your correspondents miss the way MPs actually pick up things.
Andrew Bolt has one of the most read blogs and columns in Australia and is helping to educate both people and politicians alike on the true costs of climatic induced cap and trade, please visit his blog to show some support. – Anthony
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
“Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by Australia (on emissions trading) could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions.… Another big problem with any Australian emissions reduction scheme is that it would not make a material difference to atmospheric carbon concentrations unless the big international polluters had similar schemes. Australia accounts for about 1 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. At recent rates of growth, China’s increase in emissions in about a year could match Australia’s entire carbon dioxide output. Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by Australia could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions.”
He also questions what climate alarmists truly want:
“It’s hard to take climate alarmists all that seriously, though, when they’re as ferociously against the one proven technology that could reduce electricity emissions to zero, nuclear power, as they are in favour of urgent reduction in emissions. For many, reducing emissions is a means to achieving a political objective they could not otherwise gain.”
aoosie (00:58:34) :
“This is nowhere a landslide that thsi post seem to imply – there is no seachange due to climate gate.”
Let me remind you of Labor warrior ex-senator Pat Kenneally who said that one vote is a landslide.
* According to the Australian Consittution, the Queen of Australia is the Australian Government.
Pompous Git, don’t you mean the Queen of England?
And curtsey when you speak about her.
Joking apart, I sympathise. I used to be Labour here in the UK, but that’s all over now. Trouble is, ‘Conservative’ Dave is just as bad as Turnbull, so we’re still stuck.
In my opinion Climategate has certainly spurred on a new confidence that was not present beforehand, it may not be all over the MSM here, but if you listen to senate speeches and parliamentary jibes, the effect is clear. The Libs have been waiting for something like this, like we all have, to establish our well researched view.
This is a dawning of a new age.
sHx, thanks for your comments. I found them extremely interesting.
I, too, am very happy Abbot won. I was worried there for a bit that Hockey may get it. I agree with you (and Bolt) when you say that Climategate DID have something to do with his win.
I’ve been a Bolt reader/commentor for years.
Ken Hall, I really feel for you. Your wonderful country is being ruined from enemies both outside and in. What you need are more people like Daniel Hannan. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/danielhannan/
Andrew Bolt is doing a great job, but struggles to get his point across in our left wing media, last Sunday morning he managed to get 30 seconds in about climategate in the closing moments of “Insiders” which is an ABC political program . Some time back a friend and myself interviewed Andrew and wrote a column in a student newspaper in an attempt to spread the word in other areas. Its time for an update, we discussed a follow up article today. Keep it up Andrew.
Napoleon was once asked whether he preferred courageous generals or brilliant generals.
He replied neither — he preferred his generals to be lucky.
I’m Canadian vacationing in Australia and have followed the run-up to the leadership spill that saw Tony Abott do exactly what I wanted him to do and achieve exactly the milestone he achieved.
I believe so far as Climategate timing goes he was “lucky”… and he was lucky in this instance because his core beliefs matched the facts on the ground.
Nothing wrong with that.
Would love to see the New Zealand government flipping over to an anti-AGW stance, as they (the Nationals) are the natural allies of the Australian Liberals — i.e. they are both the alternative to Labor. However, the Nationals are not terribly bright. As an example, they are foisting a raise in rates to pay for our no-fault insurance scheme (ACC), when they could actually cut rates if they simply reverted to the pay-as-you-go ACC scheme in place before 1999. So I don’t expect a breakthrough from them on AGW either. Indeed, their “Ministry of the Environment” has just commenced tendering for ETS programme resources.
You have to be kidding if you don’t think this is about climategate. Liberal politicians have been absolutely bombarded with phone calls and emails from irate members of the public threatening to vote for the Climate Sceptics.
The Nationals are already considering running against the Liberals in some seats. Ian McFarlane is certain to be targeted by the Nationals. He is an easy target having sold his soul as chief Liberal negotiator on the ETS.
No no no no. It’s losing your religion.
Life is bigger.
It’s bigger then you
And you are not me
The lengths I will go to,
The distance in your eyes.
Oh no I’ve said too much.
I set it up.
The above link by King of Cool to the statement by Down Under Senator Judith Adams was indeed worth the trip.
I especially liked where the Senator astutely pointed out a revealing statement from outside of Oz, that encapsulates where many of the lemmings in the AGW crowd are coming from; i.e.:
”No matter if the science of global warming is all phoney … climate change [provides] the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
IOW: Not equal opportunity: Equal OUTCOMES.
Above also reminded me of a recent great comment on this side of the Big Pond by George Will:
To a large degree environmentalism has become a program of minimizing and reducing everything EXCEPT government.
If the above definition of environmentalism succeeds, Jared Diamond may need to add another chapter to his book ”Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”. . . .
“Australian opposition dumps its leader over carbon trading bill”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/carbon-trading-australia#start-of-comments
Two comments so far
“More evil Australian Liberal senators to join the evil Republican senators. Do they really have no brains and only be driven by greed?”
“How very Un-liberal of them. Remind me, who chose the party name?”
Abott has a double “t” for your caption… Just to be squeeky clean 😉
Now I am convinced the warming alarmism is falling apart. The next 7 days will tell for sure. If we get beyond Copenhagen without a signature of even two or three major developed countries I believe it will fail. Abbots position is in lock step with that of PM Harper here in Canada. This will encourage our PM to stick to his guns. A wise position.
I’m from Perth Western Australia. I think climategate was pivotal in getting a sceptic to lead the Liberal Party. Though there was not much news in the MSM, all sceptics read Bolt and Allan Jones a popular Sydney broadcaster was very good on climategate. I heard Jones on the internet probably from a link on Bolt’s site. My experience with argueing with warmist is they wont accept data from Bolt’s site “he’s not a scientist”.
The leak happened with perfect timing. It gave us sceptics confidence in our convictions. I have followed this evolving drama since early 2007, watched Steve McIntyre carefully and politely seek data and question dubious results. Then suddenly what was happening on the other side of the “debate” was exposed by the leaked emails. It wasn’t science. Rank manipulation and spin, almost fraud. I was so angry that the Senate would pass the ETS(Emmissions Trading Scheme) even though the scientific basis was a nonsense. So Angry.
I rang Nic Minchins office (Liberal leader in the Senate (a skeptic)) and whom I spoke to said he already knew about the leaks from the CRU and I offered encouragement to keep fighting the ETS. I made more calls as well to other politicians. Don’t think I have ever rang a politican before. After that day the Liberals had several days of confusion, when it was hard to keep uptodate with who was actually in charge of the party. The bulk of the main political hierarchy resigned from their leadership roles , leaving Turnbull (warmist leader) fairly isolated.
I was shocked by the turnaround, I thought the passing of the ETS (cap and trade legislation) was certain to happen. But I wasn’t the only person to phone and email. Liberal party members where cancelling their memberships and threatening to withdraw their support, unprecidented flood of public anger. Sure the Taxes involved and all the beaurocratic nonsense that would go with it offended Liberal (sort of Aussie Republicans) party members. But I think climategate gave the politicians in the Liberal Party a spine for the first time in ages.
It is so 1984 (George Orwell etc) to have our dear leader announce “that we must act now to stop climate change” the “the time to act is now” , “we must act now for our children and their children”. Our Prime Minister says stuff like this, do you laugh or do you cry. Especially when the action he is speaking of (Tony Abbott’s words) “is a big green tax on everthing”.
The opinion polls in Australia say that the majority want the government to act on AGW. If you believe in AGW it is easy, you go with the flow and take action. Climategate arrived in the nick of time.
My opinion, hope this helps Northern Hemisphere readers.
On mysterious invisible press coverage – I notice that the regional newspaper for the UAE [Eastern Daily Press] has no coverage of Climategate on its website that I can find – only a report about the poice investigating the theft of data.
As it’s the biggest regional paper in the UK, and the story is on it’s home patch that says a lot about vested interests. I found a forum thread that mentions it but that’s it.
This is something to be proud of Anthony. I changed my firm views on AGW by visiting this blog, then Mr. McIntyre’s. A huge shift in understanding is occurring thanks to your fine efforts. The whole world owes you a tremendous debt of gratitude whether they know it yet or not!
DogB
On one level I agree with you and you would know given your location. But we Canadians see this as a hopeful event because it means there will be one more country going to Cope with out legislation in place. This translates into less pressure on other developed nations. I think once Copenhagen is over, cooler heads will prevail, even in Australia. Time is of the essence here and climategate has yet to take hold among the populace. Once it does I think the lefties will be equally hobbled and less politically powerful. The power will return to the people where it belongs. I trust the Ausies will hold what ever leader accountable in this respect, in time.
If I were an Australian resident I would email/write/call Mr Abbot’s office and remind him that his support came from people who reject the transfer of wealth and loss of sovereignty that AGW proponents and the UN want.
Abbot will get plenty of criticism from the losing side. We can’t rest on our laurels in this situation. Mr A needs to hear from his supporters that his skeptical position is right — and that he needs to stand by it without wavering.
Don’t underestimate the effect of ClimateGate in Australia. It was transformative. No it hasn’t been in our media much, but it was talked about in Parliament.
Openly and behind the scenes in contacts with four or five elected representatives, I and other skeptics have been personally sending material, updating them, answering questions on the phone, and providing cartoons like the one on this page
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/11/the-cliff-of-political-oblivion-laws-based-on-fraud/ which are directly aimed at supporting the skeptical or borderline members, and perhaps taking the confidence out of those who are fans of AGW. I know that cartoon, and many other posts and ones of Andrew Bolts were emailled by readers to every member of parliament. I understand elected members themselves email things like that around between them – especially when it suits their purposes.
There were 600 copies of skeptics handbooks there too, including the new version of which talks about bullying, fraud, & missing data.
ClimateGate gave the skeptics the edge, the confidence to pull off a transformation that I’m almost certain wouldn’t have happened. (Crikey – it was so close!)
Importantly ClimateGate transformed any illusions people had that this was just about a “waste of money”. The issue is now fraud and criminal collusion. That’s a much darker force that ignites an anger in people I haven’t seen before. Senators here reported that people were furious. “Incendiary”. No one wants to be taken advantage of.
Politicians don’t have to see it in the big name media to understand that when this story does get out (and it is) the public will not just dislike an ETS, they will detest it and resent the people who foisted it on them.
We Australians owe a big debt to that hacker or leaker. (Thank you!)
Thank goodness for the internet. Without it, we would have been sold to Goldman sachs and JP Morgan, and we would have had no idea.
Environmentalist Geoffrey Lean reports:
Climate e-mails topple Australian opposition leader The Telegraph
“Geoffrey Lean is Britain’s longest-serving environmental correspondent, having pioneered reporting on the subject over 40 years ago.”
It’s actually funny from my point of view. I was delighted. Turnbull was ousted, and this guy was in.
But, hang on, it’s just the opposition! Why should it matter?
I figure it’s because Rudd is a twat, after consideration. (He’s not a twat after consideration – he’s always been a twat, just my consideration led me to the comclusion that he is a twat. (Do I get some record for the number of times ‘twat’ is used in a paragraph, yet?)).
There is no ‘real’ government, so we only have an opposition to believe in, I guess.
Smokey (07:00:53) :
If I were an Australian resident I would email/write/call Mr Abbot’s office and remind him that his support came from people who reject the transfer of wealth and loss of sovereignty that AGW proponents and the UN want.
Abbot will get plenty of criticism from the losing side. We can’t rest on our laurels in this situation. Mr A needs to hear from his supporters that his skeptical position is right — and that he needs to stand by it without wavering.
Dead on. I’m in – looking for paper, envelope pen etc now (well, in the morning at any rate).
Let’s explain to him why he is in, and make sure he sticks to his guns.
The great enthusiasm Australian voters have for ETS (~”cap and tax”) is shown by the Nov 28th
AAP Poll
Cited by JoNova
The Courier Mail projects: ETS doomed as new leader Tony Abbott starts a fight
“You have to be kidding if you don’t think this is about climategate.”
Having been in Australia and observed the coverage here, I don’t think it was about Climategate as such. Rather, I think it’s about general AGW skepticism among much of the public and profound confusion over Kevin Rudd’s ETS in an outright majority of the public.
JoNova reports: The Global Gravy Train Takes A Major Political Hit