Tentacles of Climate 200 stretch in to new terrain
Climate 200 is spooking the major parties as it widens its horizons; the proposed cannabis study tour to ‘sample the produce’; and one Liberal senator racks up the air miles. The Sauce is here.
NSW
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After its success in blasting out Liberals from blue-ribbon seats, pollies and party officials on both sides are closely watching what Climate 200 plans to do next.
While it claims to back “community candidates”, several avid Climate 200 watchers claim the entity has also been approaching past and present pollies to “give a leg up”,
Last month, Climate 200 posted a poll featuring former SA senator Rex Patrick, who re-tweeted it on X.
Patrick, who has recently joined forces with Jacqui Lambie as he readies himself for a comeback, told The Sauce that he did not request Climate 200 to do the poll.
In response to questions, Climate 200 declared it was not financially supporting Patrick, while declaring the poll as “standard practice”.
“It is standard practice to include the names of candidates who have run before in polls,” a Climate 200 spokeswoman said.
Either way, the poll has set a cat among the pigeons.
Some pollies claimed it was a sign Climate 200 was willing to abandon its principles in its bid to snag a seat in the Senate.
“Lambie and Climate 200 are not a natural fit,” one political watcher declared.
Patrick also declared he was not being supported by Climate 200, although he argued there were affinities, especially in fighting for greater “transparency” and “accountability” – an area the “transparency warrior” has been occupying with his relentless FOI requests of government agencies.
Over in the NSW seat of Calare, The Sauce has been told Climate 200 engaged independent MP Andrew Gee in talks before it all went pear-shaped.
The word on the street is Gee would not agree to certain terms.
Instead, we hear Climate 200 will be throwing its support behind former independent candidate Kate Hook – a move that will be welcomed by Nationals candidate Sam Farraway, who is salivating at the prospect of the primaries of each of his rivals being split.
Menacing much?
FLYING HIGH
It was always going to be a big ask.
With the upcoming drug summit, Legalise Cannabis Party MP Jeremy Buckingham thought it was time some of his more conservative colleagues experienced first-hand the benefits of the drug with a trip to the United States.
Not only did he hope to have MPs learn how to make a bong and “sample” the various forms of cannabis ingestion such as edibles, Buckingham wanted to show his colleagues how Americans have embraced weed, with both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris signalling they would be in favour of decriminalising cannabis.
Despite his enthusiastic pitch, Buckingham failed to win majority support on the Portfolio Committee No. 1 – Premier and Finance committee to back his bid for a US “study tour”.
A last-ditch plea to Opposition Leader Mark Speakman – to whom Buckingham spruiked how cannabis could become a “transition industry” with the phasing out of coal and forestry – also failed.
Buckingham said he had targeted Speakman and his team as it was “more the conservative MPs that can’t see the forest for the weeds”.
“I made the case to him this that this will be a trillion-dollar industry, how we already have an industry up north, but he was too worried about ‘flying high’ headlines and that his colleagues could end up in Californian bong shops on edibles, stumbling around like Cheech and Chong,” Buckingham lamented.
“This is not reefer madness, it is about taking cannabis out of the hands of the Commancheros and putting it in the hands of Treasury.
“But he didn’t want us getting our paws on the produce, so I will have to find my own way there.
“It is very disappointing.”
PILOT PATERSON
Move over “Air Albo”.
With the travel of Labor ministers having been under close scrutiny of late – golf trip anyone? – it was only time before the flight logs of a member of the Opposition lobbed our way.
Enter Liberal Senator James Paterson, who stands accused of having taken an unusually large number of overseas trips during his time as Opposition home affairs spokesman – albeit funded privately or by foreign governments.
Recently, he clocked his 12th international visit since the 2022 election, visiting Washington DC alongside the Opposition spokesman on defence Andrew Hastie.
Paterson’s register of interest shows that he has previously been on 11 privately or foreign
government-funded international trips between October 2022 and July 2024, spending a total 57 nights overseas.
The trips have included a return flight to Honolulu for the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines, and one to Washington D.C. to participate in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) conference – which footed the bill – and other meetings.
Other trips have been to California for the International Strategy Forum, courtesy of Schmidt
Futures, and again to Washington DC and New York, to take part in a bipartisan AUKUS defence industry delegation, paid for by Pyne and Partners – a lobbying firm founded by former Coalition Minister Christopher Pyne.
Other sponsored trips saw Paterson visit London, Tokyo, Singapore, Boston, Munich, Israel, and the US.
Paterson told The Sauce that everything was done by the book.
SOCIAL COST
It can be revealed the bill for the NSW government leg of the social media summit was $450,000.
But with the gathering hearing harrowing testimonials from young people about their experiences on social media, most would agree the money was well spent.
The challenge now for political leaders is to maintain their focus in ensuring meaningful reforms to protect young people take place.
Got some Sauce? Contact linda.silmalis@news.com.au
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