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This is such a shocking response. I've tried to set out why:
1/ I spent years at EDO fighting in court to make sure Qld enviro laws did recognise climate impacts of digging up & exporting coal = "environmental harm" (called "Scope 3" emissions).
1/ I spent years at EDO fighting in court to make sure Qld enviro laws did recognise climate impacts of digging up & exporting coal = "environmental harm" (called "Scope 3" emissions).
Unfortunately, in the Court of Appeal, lawyers for the Qld Labor govt (working for Steven Miles) argued in court that Qld envt laws did NOT cover these impacts (i.e. 90% of the climate impacts from coal mine). Ironically, the govt lawyers were defending the Qld approval of..
..billionaire Gina Rhinehardt's massive Alpha coal mine in.. you guessed it,, the Galilee Basin, right next door to Adani. The Deputy Premier didn't mention that on radio, and didn't mention that her government could have changed Qld law to fix this flaw at any time since 2015.
2/ The Deputy Premier is of course correct that federal laws are deficient, but her fixation on the CPRS from 2009 is deeply confusing. That scheme would have locked in failure, and it never had the votes to pass the Senate without the LNP (hence it's terrible lack of ambition
(by the way, Kevin Rudd negotiated the CPRS with Ian Macfarlane, who is now the head of the Qld Resources Council (i.e. the coal lobby) so you can imagine how awful it was)
3/ Just a few years later in 2010, Labor worked collaboratively with the Greens and independents to create world-leading clean energy laws that actually did consider "fugitive emissions" which the DP referred to (called "Scope 2"). Labor imploded, & Tony Abbott trashed those laws
4/ Labor has had four years since 2015 to start planning a transition away from thermal coal that taxes big corporations to secure jobs, housing and justice for regional Qlders. We won't get there by pretending coal will last forever, or that coal mines can "stack up" in 2019.
.@reblev it sucks that the Deputy Premier was able to so drastically misled your listeners by claiming her hands were tied when her govt argued successfully against sensible consideration of Scope 3 emissions in 2016 and left Qld laws unchanged. I urge her to correct the record.
One last thing, I've introduced a bill to ban all coal mining in the Galilee Basin, which Qld Labor has announced they will oppose. If the Deputy Premier wants to get serious about stopping our slide into climate chaos, we would be happy to talk.
