ScoMo must call out Labor’s ties to Green extremism

Are Labor voters really OK with being tied by association to the radical views of Greens that would drive up energy prices and make coal a crime, asks James Morrow. It’s time for answers.

Yes, yes, we all know the big minor party story this week is One Nation and how they’re all in trouble for their drunken business trip footsie with the NRA.

But can we take just a moment to talk about the Greens?

And, particularly, how so few people seem to be calling out their latest stab at an energy plan, which seems to be little more than a warmed-over and watered-down version of Utopian schemes such as US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s much-mocked “Green New Deal”.

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The Greens’ plan, as reported in this newspaper on Thursday, calls for a phase-out of petrol cars and 100 per cent renewables by 2030 and “negative zero” emissions by 2040.

Coal would be no more, as would natural gas — even though it has helped the US to drive down its carbon emissions while keeping that ­nation’s economy powering ahead.

The Greens policy includes a target of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and “negative zero” emissions by 2040. Picture: Supplied

And, of course, the plan includes the obligatory “$65 billion carbon tax and household compensation scheme (and) immediate ban on any new coal mines, fracking, and conventional onshore and offshore gas and oilfields”.

RELATED: Greens policy plan bans fossil fuel and sets target of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030

Don’t bother wondering if electric car technology and charging infrastructure will be able to match the range and reliability of petrol cars by 2030; under the Greens’ scheme, any electricity available would surely be far too dear to waste on driving down to the shops.

This would seem like a ripe target for the Coalition, which has been forced onto the back foot this week in dealing with its One Nation preferencing arrangements.

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After all, if the Liberals are constantly having to fend off attempts to tar them with far-right extremism, surely the same medicine could be applied to Labor, which will surely have preference swap arrangements with the Greens and rely on them in the Senate, if elected.

The question must be asked, are Labor voters really OK with being tied by association to the Greens, whose climate spokesman Adam Bandt said last November he wants it to “become a crime to use coal, because coal kills”?

Yet while the Coalition seems barely able to land on a plan for even discussing energy, in the US, Donald Trump and the Republicans have gone on the offensive — to their ­advantage.

In a parliamentary masterstroke this week, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell forced a non-binding resolution onto the floor of the Senate, forcing Democrats — including any number of would-be presidential contenders — to take a stand.

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The resolution, to show support for the radical Green New Deal, was defeated 57-0, with a further 43 Democrats and independents simply registering their vote as “present”.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has kept annoyingly quiet on what Labor thinks about the Greens’ energy plan. Picture: Ray Strange.

Amazingly, Ocasio-Cortez tried to claim credit for the vote, tweeting afterwards that she had “encouraged” Democrats to vote present, presumably as a gambit in whatever four-dimensional chess game she’s playing in her mind.

Yes, we get it. You meant to do that.

But so far we have heard precious little from Bill Shorten and Labor as to what they think about the Greens’ energy plan, nor have we heard the Coalition much asking the question.

Just as America’s Republicans have forced mainstream Democrats to show their hand, Labor should be made to answer what they think of the Greens’ own out-there energy plans.

As Labor has not yet figured out if it is still the party of the working man or the party that sneers at him, and last February the CFMEU and NSW Labor came to blows over the future of the Wallarah 2 coal project on the state’s Central Coast, the answers could be interesting.

And they might also give the Coalition a much-needed point of difference from Labor at next May’s expected election.

James Morrow is opinion editor of The Saturday Telegraph and co-host of Outsiders on Sky News.

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