Labor Versus Workers
The battle continues between Greens-leaning Labor climate doomists and unionists who want jobs.
The battle continues between Greens-leaning Labor climate doomists and unionists who want jobs:
The nation’s leading right-wing and left-wing unions have teamed up to urge Labor MPs to support gas and coal amid an internal ALP conflict over energy policy …
AWU national secretary Daniel Walton and CFMMEU mining and energy national president Tony Maher held a briefing in Canberra with regional Labor MPs on Tuesday and pushed the party to support the expansion of the gas sector despite the opposition of environmental groups.
The two union leaders also said battery storage was “not close to replacing coal” as a baseload energy source and that reducing coal exports would make it more difficult for other nations to make a sensible transition to cleaner energy sources.
All true.
In a 15-page briefing document, seen by The Australian, the two union figures warn that Australia will not become a renewable energy “superpower tomorrow if we de-industrialise today”. The briefing document will be distributed to all Labor MPs on Thursday.
“We need to maintain our heavy industrial base today to expand it,” the document says.
“Battery storage is not close to replacing coal. Currently batteries dispatch 0.08 per cent of total electricity generation.”
We’ve now reached a point where Labor MPs have to be told they should support workers:
The two warned MPs not to position themselves as opposed to blue collar workers or anti-jobs in traditional industries, and urged attendees to defend blue collar workers while plotting a path to jobs that would be created during the transition to low emissions energy.
Meanwhile, this bloke keeps clowning up the place:
NSW Environment and Energy Minister Matt Kean has made another speech talking down gas and coal as long-term fuel supplies, saying they are “not the cheapest forms of reliable energy”.
Correct. Nuclear is cheaper.
Launching left-wing think tank The Australia Institute’s online polling results into attitudes on climate change, Mr Kean said the survey showed 80 per cent of Australians think that “we are already experiencing the impact of climate change and they are right”.
Kean needs to experience the impact of change. From government to opposition.