7 years ago today, I was among a group of citizens standing up in the House of Reps gallery, interrupting Greg Hunt as he introduced bills to repeal Australia's then world-leading climate action laws, laws brought in through constructive negotiation between Labor & the Greens. 1/ We implored him not to do it. We delayed the repeal a little. We bore witness to the moment. But the immense political power of the fossil fuel corporations was too much. 2/

In the middle of a pandemic, while tens of thousands of Australian citizens are locked out and can’t return, Morrison and Dutton have decided to go ahead with war games with America. And sure enough, someone infected arrived. The gung ho militarism of this government is incredibly dangerous in so many ways. Covid infection due to global war gaming is in some ways the least of it. This stuff runs from turning the War Memorial into a weapons museum to beating the drums of war with China.

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.