Thread by @David_Ritter

Yesterday a government without a credible climate action policy won the climate election. How did this happen and what does it mean? Here’s a thread...
#ausvotes #democracysausage #ClimateEmergency

Great change is non-linear. History is unpredictable. Elections come and elections go but we must retain belief in what is possible and execute our best plans to make it so. Standing from where we are today, Australia can still have a flourishing future.

Bitterness, fatalism, condescension or sneering won’t lead us to where Australia needs to be. Don’t hate on beautiful Queensland! We have to find a way through the climate emergency and our best chance will come if we can manifest a shared spirit and purpose as a nation.

The climate and extinctions emergency haven’t gone anywhere. The natural systems of the world aren’t interested in Australian electoral results. We have huge amounts of work to do, very fast. We made this mess, we can still clean it up. There is still time. Just.

This was a climate election, but it was many other things too. Meaningful action on climate change must be intimately connected with the promise of personal fulfilment: a golden thread that entwines the fate of the world to improving the lives of people within a single story.

Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos said very clearly on the ABC last night that community feeling can compel political action on climate change. Remember, Tony Abbott’s first budget? It was busted by community revolt. And the numbers in parliament are set to be very, very tight...

The government is not the country. Huge amounts of climate action can occur outside of what the commonwealth government does. Cities, towns, states, territories, businesses, institutions of all kinds… all of these can take action.

We are set for more climate disasters in the next three years. People will suffer. The country will suffer. We don’t know what the socio-political impact of these disruptions will be. We need a big approach to national resilience - something no major party leader has yet offered.

State the obvious, but we urgently need to do a range of things that Morrison doesn’t want to do. Launching to becoming a clean energy superpower. Backing regenerative farming. Closing all coal power within a decade. Ending fossil fuel exports. The imperatives haven’t changed.

Morrison has a coherent ideology and a coherent view of Australia. Whether you agree with them or not, these are worth studying and understanding on their own terms.

The bias of commercial media, scare campaigns, the spending of Clive Palmer, etc are not aberrations: they are the strategic operating environment. It isn't right or fair, but it's axiomatic that vested interests will use their power & money to maintain their position.

No question, there needs to be massive reform and reinvigoration of our democracy - and that would be true regardless of yesterday's result. A coalition must be built to make that possible. And yes, we need a big conversation about digital media and the fragmentation of society.

Above all, the labour of our lives, our work of love, goes on. The need for leadership has never been greater. We all need to step up, all of us: if we care about our children’s lives, about one million species, about nature, about civilisation, about the future of our country...

So, there is no time to waste. We can do this. We must do this. We will do this.
Great change is non-linear. History is unpredictable. We must retain belief in what is possible and execute our best plans to make it so. Our beautiful Australia can still have a flourishing future.