Queensland government not heeding climate lessons from federal election
It’s been a bad week for climate action in Queensland. Today, the Queensland government announced it’ll open up a staggering 16,000 sq km for new gas exploration – a move that will turbocharge the Sunshine State’s carbon emissions.
Yesterday, Queensland’s Treasurer and Energy Minister, David Janetzki, touted the government’s $1.4 billion cash splash on coal power stations in front of a room full of fossil fuel industry heavyweights at the Australian Energy Producers Conference.
The day before, the government backflipped and axed a wind farm that they approved six months ago. The move sent shockwaves through the renewables sector and has fuelled even more uncertainty in a state that doesn’t have an energy plan.
Given the current social and political state-of-play, it’s mind-boggling that Premier David Crisafulli and the rest of the Queensland government aren’t heeding the lesson of the federal election result; in fact, they seem to be going even further down the wrong track.
The federal Coalition lost the election because they released a light-on-detail policy package that felt like it was written to appeal to men over 60 who don’t believe in climate change. They listened to their older echo-chamber instead of the majority of Australian people.
The fact is, Millennials and Gen Z are now calling the shots on who forms government, which means the Liberals and Nationals will struggle to win an election, anywhere, without a credible climate policy.
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Six LNP-held state electorates overlap with federal seats that flipped from the Coalition to Labor at the recent election – if replicated at the next state election, that’s enough to make the Queensland LNP lose majority government. Other federal electorates in Queensland had a swing to Labor big enough that if repeated would topple a further seven state LNP seats.
The areas where the Crisafulli Government are particularly vulnerable to an electorate passionate about climate action include Far North Queensland, where there is a strong local connection to the Great Barrier Reef, and suburban Brisbane.
Last month, polling showed between 74-78 per cent of Millennials and Gen Z said climate change would influence their vote, which makes sense because it’s our generation that will have to bear the brunt of the impacts. We don’t want to pay the price and rebuild following more unnatural disasters. We don’t want to watch the planet’s biodiversity collapse over our lifetimes. We want a fair go for our future – it’s not rocket science.
Last year, the Queensland LNP were able to win the state election because leader David Crisafulli understood they had to move towards Australia’s political centre and neutralise climate change as an issue. They did this by rejecting nuclear and voting in favour of legislating Queensland’s 75 per cent by 2035 emission reduction target before the election.
At the time of Queensland’s election in October last year, polling showed that the public viewed David Crisafulli as more moderate and better for the environment and climate than Peter Dutton.
But since then the Crisafulli Government has changed their tune.
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The energy minister David Janetzki now says they will repeal Queensland’s popular renewable energy targets, review keeping retiring coal stations past their planned retirement dates, and review the 75 per cent emissions reduction target.
If they follow through with these moves they’ll not only be breaking a promise to Queenslanders, they’ll also be putting ideology over economics and energy reliability.
Queensland’s ageing coal stations were offline a staggering 78 times over the last summer period. Coal power stations are increasingly unreliable and when coal breaks down it drives up wholesale power prices.
Instead of throwing billions in taxpayer support at keeping coal online, the practical thing for the Queensland government to do is to plan for their retirement, provide certainty to the industry, and encourage more renewable energy and storage supply coming online. So, pretty much the opposite of backflipping and rejecting a wind farm that they’d already approved.
Queenslanders are already paying the price for more ferocious and frequent unnatural disasters. We’re paying higher insurance and grocery bills, while the fossil fuel companies pumping out climate pollution are making eye-watering profits and dining at inner-city conferences that cost more than $1000 a head.
The Insurance Council of Australia reports that the flooding in North Queensland this summer and ex-tropical cyclone Alfred cost $1.5 billion. There’s another three summers to go before the next state election, where Queenslanders will feel the heat and likely experience more unprecedented extreme weather.
The lesson from the federal election is clear: younger voters overwhelmingly want governments to invest in a future where they’ll be safe.
Premier David Crisafulli and Energy Minister David Janetzki should listen to this message over the ideology of climate-denialist members in their ranks. With Millennials and Gen Z now calling the shots, their political survival depends on it. A few hundred likes from Baby Boomers on Facebook is not going to change the direction the wind is blowing.
Stephanie Gray is a millennial and a Senior Campaigner at the Queensland Conservation Council.
