Thread by @David_Ritter

Integrity and climate change are key #Election22 issues because the @ScottMorrisonMP government has failed dismally on both.
But what if they were actually the same issue?
To quote ‘The Wire’, everything is connected.
Here’s a thread…
🧵#auspol #wreckingcrew

There is no doubting the Morrison government’s utter failure to deliver effective climate action.
There’s no credible plan, no credible target, no credible mechanism and a global reputation for obstruction.
Here’s an earlier thread which sets it out:

https://twitter.com/David_Ritter/status/1511465557950107649?s=20&t=F2cUf2mg_fsveSe0_iAajw

There is also no doubt about issues with public integrity.
Australia has been singled out by Transparency International for ‘systemic failings in tackling public sector corruption’.
Here’s an earlier thread which sets it out:

https://twitter.com/David_Ritter/status/1520888525595758593?s=20&t=6PfbKlwOyJFOa9YjLHB56w

An overwhelming majority of Australians want real climate action.
The science is clear & unequivocal - we are in an emergency.
And we have all the policy & technical solutions we need.
So how do we explain Morrison’s inaction? Let’s dig into this…
climateworksaustralia.org/resource/decar…

The short answer is that our democratic system has malformed.
Vested interests have deviated government and other public institutions away from the public good, to short-term private gain.
Let’s dig into this...

There are different kinds of corruption.
First, there’s plain crookedness: unlawful private gain from public office. Some well known identities have gone down for this, but it’s uncommon.
After all, why take the risk of criminal activity, if you can get what you want lawfully?

Because weird as it sounds, not all ‘corruption’ is unlawful.
‘Institutional corruption’ occurs when vested interests use influence - in ways which may be perfectly legal - to divert public institutions away from their purpose to favour private interests:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

'Institutional corruption' - in the form of corporations using influence strategically to divert government away from the public interest - is both lawful and rife in Australia.

In particular, institutional corruption to prevent our rapid clean energy transition has been organised and persistent.
As @MrKRudd said, big polluters have run ‘sophisticated political operations’ to thwart climate action: theguardian.com/environment/20…

It's a matter of public record that fossil fuel corporations and other big polluters actively organised to thwart climate action, as revealed by @4corners, @lenoretaylor, @CliveCHamilton and others.
This recent book by @mwilkinson54 is a cracker:
allenandunwin.com/browse/books/g…

There've also been some fantastic recent reports that I've relied on here including ‘Selling Out: How Powerful Industries Corrupt our Democracy’ by @humanrightsHRLC & ‘Confronting State Capture’ by ​​@OurDemocracyAU.
🙏🙏🙏 @AliceDrury @Scottludlam @FlickRubicon & @FahyMichelle

So how does ‘institutional corruption’ work? Well, there are plenty of perfectly lawful levers. Most obviously, fossil fuel corporations are lucrative donors to political parties and candidates: theguardian.com/environment/20…

And lots of the money that changes hands is never disclosed at all.
Research by @cpi_aus counted $1.5 billion dollars in
secret contributions to federal political parties in the last twenty years:
publicintegrity.org.au/source-of-1-5-…

So, what do you get for a donation?
According to @humanrightsHRLC ‘at the very least, a sizeable donation can ensure the donor gets meetings with a politician that ordinary Australians wouldn’t’: static1.squarespace.com/static/580025f…

Political donations & lobbying go hand-in-glove. @DrAdamLucas found fossil fuel corporations had ‘constructed a covert network of lobbyists & revolving door appointments… ensur[ing] industry interests continue to dominate Australia’s energy policy’: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

UK research outfit @InfluenceMap found that massive polluters like @WoodsideEnergy, @AGLAustralia and @Chevron were among the most active corporate vested interests lobbying on climate policy in Canberra: australia.influencemap.org

Remember the 80s banger, ‘Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…’?
Well, it turns out that donations from fossil fuel corporations ‘correlate with the election cycle, timelines on project approvals, and debates on key industry policies'.
Hmmmm... static1.squarespace.com/static/580025f…

As an example, the good folk at @AusConservation revealed that gas corporations were the biggest fossil fuel donors, with their donations spiking at the same time as Morrison committed to a ‘gas-fired recovery’:
Hmmmm…
acf.org.au/political_dona…

Key to all of this is what is known as the ‘revolving door’, in which individuals move from roles as legislators, political advisers and public servants - to jobs with corporate vested interests - and sometimes back again: static1.squarespace.com/static/5eaac47…

The evidence shows that ‘companies that employ former government officials are more successful at getting meetings with government
representatives, and are more likely to get a sympathetic audience’: static1.squarespace.com/static/580025f…

And it goes the other way too….
According to @CallumDRFoote, the Morrison government has ‘stacked Australia’s renewable energy agencies with fossil fuel executives’: michaelwest.com.au/scott-morrison…

And it is not just individual appointments - entire public institutions can be ‘repurposed’ to serve the aims of vested interests - and agencies start to understand their task as expediting approvals and enabling polluters: static1.squarespace.com/static/5eaac47…

From a selfish politicians’ perspective, there’s plenty to be gained from getting all nice and cosy - in a perfectly lawful way - with coal, oil and gas corporations.
Most obviously, as @crikey_news put it: ‘political parties need money’:
crikey.com.au/2021/03/17/mon…

Fossil fuel corporations can also - perfectly legally - offer lucrative employment and board opportunities for ex politicians - what @DrAdamLucas dubbed ‘the golden escalator’: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Fossil fuel corporations can also be helpful to sitting politicians by providing ‘announceables’ - even when (climate and environmental impacts to one side) the numbers don’t stack up: australiainstitute.medium.com/explained-adan…

Fossil fuel corporations can also offer politicians the opportunity for some self-interested cosplay - the chance to wear high-viz vests in a bid to make themselves look more interesting and electable: crikey.com.au/2021/10/19/mat…

Then there’s the dinners, the corporate boxes, the events, to which fossil fuel corporations can invite politicians and other decision makers, perfectly legally.
For example, Woodside Meg O'Neill is closely connected with @WASymphony and @freodockers: linkedin.com/in/meg-o-neill…

So, lots of perfectly legal benefits to be had from cosy relationships between politicians and fossil fuel corporations.
And it all gets normalised as 'how things get done around here’ in what @DrCameronMurray and @FrijtersPaul call ‘the game of mates’: gameofmates.com

But there’s a final kicker:
The pervasive institutional corruption that has thwarted effective climate action in Australia, also serves a deeper, extreme ideological purpose - the 'wrecking crew' agenda:

https://twitter.com/David_Ritter/status/1508913485626830848?s=20&t=3Hi8Ds1fY3nc94oPJrNJAg

When policy, approvals, agencies, regulations, laws - all get deviated from the public good to benefiting vested interests, then people know the fix is in.
This destroys confidence in government and corrodes the very idea of the public good - and that’s the ‘wrecking crew’ agenda

And the ‘wrecking crew’ agenda also suits the big polluters.
After all, the whole business model of the coal, oil and gas corporations, depends on:
(1) extracting private gain from public resources
(2) driving increasingly catastrophic climate change.

So it should come as no surprise that the fossil fuel industry has some deep ties with the ‘wrecking crew’ ideologues.
As @DeSmog put it ‘the climate denial movement is the anti-science wing of the neoliberal network’: desmog.com/node-8441/

It is well known that coal mining billionaire Gina Rineheart is - and to be clear, there is nothing remotely unlawful about this - a very generous funder of the @TheIPA: thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/…

What all of this adds up to, is that the reason why we don’t have real climate action in Australia is because of the - perfectly lawful - ‘institutional corruption’ of our system of government by vested interests.

The ‘institutional corruption’ itself is nested within a broader Fossil Fuel Order - an interlocking array of political, economic, legal, social, cultural and ideological structures. But that is a conversation for another day:
arena.org.au/empire-of-the-…

The silver lining to all of this is that tackling ‘institutional corruption’ and transitioning from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewables at emergency speed and scale, are mutually reinforcing, as part of a project of national renewal.

So, enough is enough.
Time to boot coal, oil and gas out of our energy system.
Time to boot the vested interests out of the halls of our democracy.
Let’s create the conditions for a flourishing Australia. #auspol