Not Smart

YET ANOTHER UPDATE

I apologize again to those who receive these posts as emails for clogging their in-boxes with re-posts but this time I wanted to link to the Quit Coal campaign's Big Brother Ferguson is watching. Don't forget to read the excellent 'Op - Ed' piece by Shaun Murray from Quit Coal published in 'The Age' on January 10. This addresses the revelations of unethical government surveillance that prompted my original post. Since the original post this piece from New Matilda, 'Yes, You Are Being Watched' by Adam Brereton has appeared and is worth reading. This piece was prompted by a Melbourne forum ‘War on the Internet' highlights of which can be seen here. Bernard Keane's piece for Crikey 'Tracking the trackers: the cyber snoops working in Australia' can be seen here. 

Above all don't forget the Quit Coal HRL Rally.

 In 2007 the Howard Government awarded HRL a grant of $100 million to build a new coal fired power station in Victoria. But 5 years later HRL has failed to meet any conditions of this grant and it is now under review. Recent media reports indicate it may be revoked, making it unlikely that HRL would ever be built.

This would be a massive win for us, and that's why we're joining with other groups to holding the biggest HRL rally yet. Together we can send a powerful reminder to the government about the strength of our opposition to HRL, and a big turn out could be decisive in turning the decision in our favour.
Where: Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne CBD
When: 12.30PM, Wednesday February 1st
Featuring: Special guest speakers Adam Bandt MP and Kelvin Thompson MP
Bring: Signs & Placards telling the government you want renewable energy & NO NEW COAL!
Share!: Be sure to click 'attending' on our facebook event and invite all your friends!
For a year we have fought this project, doing everything from locking on in treasury place, holding rallies, performing media stunts (including helping on the largest banner drops in Australian history), and collecting signatures on our massive joint petition with Greenpeace and Environment Victoria that netted almost 13,000 signatures.

More importantly, however, it would be a massive win for the planet. The International Energy Agency tells us that building new coal infrastructure will lock in dangerous global warming. A victory against HRL, then, is a victory against precisely the kind of greed and short-sightedness that would do just that.

Please join us, then, and put February 1st in your diary as a day when we will draw a line in the sand and say No New Coal in Victoria!


The original post on Fossil Fuel Fergie's latest spying exploits is below:

------------------------------------------------------

Having just finished a post on the latest not so excellent adventures of Martin Ferguson - the Energy Minister that time forgot -  he's in the news again. Ferguson, apparently responding to the urging of his industry mates the (largely foreign owned) big miners and power generators, instigated an ongoing program of surveillance of Australian environmental groups on the laughably disingenuous pretext of protecting energy security. As a result, for some years the AFP has paid the private investigation group NOSIC to spy on various environment and climate groups. How much bang have they had for our bucks? A mental review of the last couple of years of climate action suggests not too much. Reaction so far has come from leader of the Greens, Senator Bob Brown who accused Ferguson of turning Australia into a police state. Ferguson of course followed the time honored tradition of hiding behind a statement from 'a spokeswoman' when the shit hit the fan. A spokesperson for Mr Ferguson said yesterday that governments at all levels were concerned to maintain energy security and economic activity. ''This includes maintaining the rule of law and energy supply where issues-motivated groups actively seek to engage in unlawful activity.''

The rebuttal of the ludicrous reference to 'energy security' written by Shaun Murray from Quit Coal and published in The Age on January 10 leaves this shambolic government (yet again) without a stitch to cover its ineptitude. 

Over Christmas I read a new book from David Marr entitled 'Panic'.  This examines the exploitation of governments of deliberately manufactured 'panic' as a recurrent feature of the Australian political landscape. The resonance of Marr's central idea with this bumbling, but nevertheless sinister, effort by this stumbling government is unmistakeable.

This is yet another lurch to the right by the Gillard Government which seems to have lost track of any basis in ethical behavior and a blow to the ALP which can apparently no longer be taken seriously as a source of rational, principled, progressive policy. On New Year's Day, Guy Rundle wrote an opinion piece in the Age 'Where's Labor's Brain?'. Rundle's argument is that over the last decade or so it has permanently relocated to The Greens. Whether he is right or wrong, this pathetic little adventure certainly makes it look as though Labor's brain, (not to mention its moral compass) has gone missing somewhere.

The last time I looked the following statements could be found in the Preamble to the Federal ALP platform:

"… Labor's enduring values, which were born in the collective struggle for better living and working conditions in the last century, are reflected in the progressive and reformist tradition which the Party embodies and in the continuing pursuit of a society which values our security; champions fairness and equality; believes in communities and families; promotes social justice and compassion; values environmental sustainability; supports freedom, liberty and enterprise; and strives for opportunity and aspiration.

 * We value fairness and equality and believe in a fair go for all—we believe that a nation should be governed in the broader interests of all, not in the sectional interests of a few.

* We value the environment that sustains us all—and which we must now sustain with our country's united and urgent effort.

These are the Labor Party's timeless values and they are fundamental Australian values.

These are the values that have given this great nation of ours its moral compass—not allowing us to just look after ourselves, but always prompting us to look beyond ourselves. Not just to ask what is in this for me and my immediate family, but also to ask what is in this for my community and my country. These are the values that must now guide Australia's future."

I really don't know whether to laugh or cry.

------------------------------------------------

A blog post from academic and climate scientist Roger Jones made me aware of a talk at the Woodford Folk Festival by Guy Pearse. The focus was, of course coal specifically the greenhouse gas implications of Australia's ambitiously expanding coal export industry. Pearse estimates that Australia will export about 75 Gigatonnes CO2 conservatively between now and 2050.  That’s 10% of the total budget estimated by the German agency WBGU (pdf) that can be emitted from 2008 to give a 2 in 3 chance of avoiding 2°C.

Not smart. Not smart at all.