Andrew Bolt: Climate Bill is dangerous and anti-democratic

Climate “independents” want to kill debate, cripple democracy and let unelected extremists like Tim Flannery tell us what to do — but they don’t have a plan to cut emissions.

Climate “independents” like Zali Steggall have an astonishing plan to make an Albanese Labor government bring back a Tim Flannery, but this time force politicians to listen to him.

They’ll also force those politicians to ignore the kind of people warning he’s an extremist whose ideas would ruin the country.

Incredible, but true. And dangerous and anti-democratic.

It’s all in the Steggall Bill backed by climate “independents”, such as Monique Ryan, Allegra Spender and Kylea Tink – a Bill they want Labor to pass if it wins the election with their help.

The last time we had a minority Labor federal government, dependent on the Greens, it created its own Climate Commission, and put Flannery in charge.

Remember him? The global warming catastrophist who falsely claimed “even the rainfall that falls will not actually fill our dams and our river systems”?

The bloke who also claimed Sydney could run out of water by, er, a decade ago? That Perth would become the first “ghost metropolis”?

The huckster who helped to convince Labor premiers to build hugely expensive desalination plants, many essentially mothballed ever since?

Remember Tim Flannery? The global warming catastrophist who falsely claimed ‘even the rainfall that falls will not actually fill our dams and our river systems’?

Well, the climate “independents” – wealthy white women hand-picked and financed by billionaire’s son Simon Holmes a Court to run against the Liberals in wealthy seats – have seen all that and thought: “Yes!”

Yes, let’s have another Climate Commission just like Flannery’s, which the Liberals abolished, but this time give it the powers of a Putin.

And let’s give it a mission – by law – to slash our global warming gases by a massive 60 per cent by 2030, much more than even Labor thinks is wise.

The way they sell this extraordinary plan is so dishonest.

Take Ryan, increasingly likely to topple Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong.

“I am supportive of Zali Steggall’s Climate Change Action Bill”, she said last week.

It would deliver “effective action on climate change … within the next six months if independents such as myself are able to have that bill brought to parliament and passed after the election”.

Tink, who could win in North Sydney, made the same fake claim: “Steggall’s Climate Change Bill is the only comprehensive plan we have to reach net zero”.

False. You are being conned.

Zali Steggall’s bill has not one word explaining how our emissions would be cut. Picture: Christian Gilles

I’ve read Steggall’s Bill and there’s not one word explaining how our emissions would be cut. There is no plan.

There is not one word explaining when coal-fired power stations, coal mining and gassy industries would be banned. Nothing about what farmers will have to do. Not a word on costs or how we’ll then power Australia, either.

No, this Bill is not a blueprint of “effective action on climate change”.

It’s actually a Flannery-for-Dictator Bill that plans to kill debate, cripple democracy and give an unelected new commission the power to force unknown global warming policies on to us.

This Bill calls for a new Climate Change Commission, stacked only with global warming bureaucrats and believers who must believe three false things.

One: they must believe – by law – it makes sense to cut our emissions by 60 per cent by 2030.

Two: they must believe – by law – “the direct costs of climate change … are highly likely to be substantially greater than the costs of mitigating climate change”, even though the fortune we’ve spent so far made essentially zero difference to the world’s temperature.

Three: they must believe – by law – in “applying the precautionary principle”, forcing them to always imagine the worst, even though we’re living longer, more safely and with more food than ever.

Climate ‘independents’ have an astonishing plan to make an Albanese Labor government bring back a Tim Flannery. Picture: Liam Kidston

This Steggall Bill even forces its new commission and the government to pay most attention to the organisations pushing the global warming scare hardest – the commission itself, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Bureau of Meteorology (which once falsely claimed permanent drought was our “new climate”) and the CSIRO, plus Australian universities.

So if you’re a world-renowned climate expert from overseas sceptical about the scare (like Professors Richard Lindzen, Nir Shaviv and Judith Curry) the commission and the government cannot – by law – pay you much attention, just desserts.

This Steggall Bill also insists the commission cannot be controlled by the government. In fact, the reverse: the government must issue plans to cut emissions every time the commission hands it a “climate change risk assessment”.

That’s what the climate “independents” really want. No debate, and less democracy. Just a law to let unelected extremists like Tim Flannery tell us what to do.

And what would they demand? You’ll find out only after the election. Too late.