Australian government backs coal in defiance of IPCC climate warning

Deputy PM Michael McCormack says policy will not change based on ‘some sort of report’

Must believe Trump rather than science or is it just plain corruption.

Plain corruption.

Our current government are a bunch of corporate whores to the mining industry, and our current Prime Minister (then-Treasurer) once brought a lump of coal into parliament and waved it at the opposition shouting "It won't hurt you!!"

Current polls show this sorry lot being turfed out at the election due next year. We can only hope.

OlivierK wrote:Current polls show this sorry lot being turfed out at the election due next year. We can only hope.

Yes. In 2017 Australia exported 200 million ton of thermal coal valued at $20.8 billion, and 172Mt of coking coal valued at $35.7 billion. That firebrand, Bill Shorten, will shut that down when Labor forms the new government. We, the Australian people, will be as jubilant about it as about his simultaneously announced decision to close the Nauru concentration camp down and allow asylum seekers to set foot on Australian soil once again. Labor governments are renowned for being radically different compared to the conservatives ever since Paul Keating started the privatisation ball rolling. That's something the Fraser government, despite its ideological commitment to private enterprise, never managed to implement.

OK, that was a bit of a rant. Still, while I prefer the Labor pricks to the LNP pricks any day, my hope for the coming government change is tempered by history and current realities.