My usual rule is not to engage with this ancient history on twitter and focus on the future. But since Labor have abandoned holding to account a government on the ropes and made it the issue of the day, I’ve got a few things to say, more in sadness than in anger.
The thing I remember most starkly about the night the #CPRS went down was how little effort the ALP made to change the result. Usually, when major legislation is coming into the Senate, even if a government is quite confident of the outcome, there’s a flurry of activity.
When a government is unsure, activity levels go through the roof. There are hurried phone calls, meetings in corridors, messages flying from office to office, Ministers huddling over the desks of cross-benchers in the chamber.
10 years ago, none of that was happening. The Greens were in the chamber, moving amendments that Kevin Rudd & Penny Wong had refused to even meet to discuss. The Coalition were busy changing leaders. And the government were making no attempt to find any kind of working majority.
Remember that Nick Xenophon was in the Senate at the time. If you couldn’t work out a deal with Nick, goodness knows what you were doing. He said this: "If you're going to fix up a problem, don't do it in a half-hearted way. Do it in a way that will actually address the problem."
No attempt was made by Rudd or Wong to negotiate with Nick Xenophon. No attempt to negotiate with the Greens. No attempt to secure a majority other than with the climate deniers and coal corporation proxies in the Coalition.
Anyone with any memory of the Rudd years will be utterly unsurprised by this. That was Rudd’s style – my way or the highway. Not only did he refuse to talk to the Greens, but his wedging of the Libs undoubtedly contributed to their #spill.
In the recent bio on Wong, the point is made that she and Rudd “decided early not to continue to engage with the Greens”. The only word I’d question there is “continue”. There was never any pretence of starting engagement. 
Attempt after attempt, amendment after amendment, based on expert advice, rejected out of hand by Labor. It’s on the public record that Rudd refused to meet with the Greens at all through the entire period. Wong had a couple of meetings where she outright rejected any compromise.
Could the Greens have done more? Goodness knows, whatever any of us do, we could do more. I think everyone like me, who’s been a climate activist for 20 years, constantly wonders what more we could’ve done. But, 10 years on, we’re still blaming those who tried HARDEST?
The only thing more bizarre and outrageous than that is that Labor, to this day, prefer to erase the extraordinary success of the Gillard/Milne Clean Energy Act that was negotiated so soon after.
The Multi-Party Climate Change Committee showed what could be achieved when Labor actually negotiates with the Greens. Even more impressively, the ACT’s 100% renewables and world-leading climate action shows how far we can go together when we work together.
The erasure of these successes in favour of continued attacks about an event 10 years ago shows that, too often, Labor still sees climate as a political issue to be managed, instead of the greatest crisis we’ve ever faced. That has to change, and fast. And that’s on Labor.
Come on, folks. Let's get ON with it!
