It was only five months ago, as the Senate enshrined in law Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction from 2005 levels target by 2030 that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek took to Twitter.

Carried along by the heady tailwind of a new cast of fresh-faced teal independents and an expanded Greens party room joining forces to deliver a decisive break from the dastardly decade of Coalition stagnation, Plibersek boldly declared “the decade of climate wars is over”.