Biden triumph to inspire change on climate policy

Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in campaign rally in the parking lot of Cellairis Ampitheatre this week in Atlanta, Georgia. Picture: AFP

As if there weren’t enough changes to grapple with in 2020, another big shift is likely to occur next week: the election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. Biden has described himself as a transitional candidate. But if he wins and delivers­ on his policy promises he won’t be a transitional president — he’ll be transformational.

His presidency could reframe progressive public policy thinking — more vision and big ideas, less technocracy. More Al Gore and Lyndon B. Johnson, less Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

On climate, Biden’s green-energy­ plan is more than 20 times the size of the $US90bn green-energy investment Obama shoehorned into his 2009 stimulus package. In last week’s presidential debate, Biden sounded like Gore when he was asked whether he would close down the oil industry­ and said: “I would transition from the oil industry, yes.”

If Biden prevails, this will have huge ramifications for the global economy — perhaps even enough to bring a recalcitrant Morrison government to confront Australia’s climate future.

Biden’s policies range from universal pre-kindergarten to cancelling student debt to making college free to students from low-income households. He plans to build 1.5 million affordable public homes, an initiative in line with Johnson’s 1964 Great Society ambition­ to end poverty and inequality and to lower crime rates.

Politics is all about timing, and Biden’s is pretty much perfect. COVID-19 has created a need for new policy thinking and the Democratic Party is seizing the opportunity. The contrast between­ Biden’s policy platform and the Morrison government’s recent budget is stark. The budget added $1 trillion to Australia’s national­ credit card, but somehow will not solve a single major policy problem, or undertake any much-needed reform to our economy. We needed imagination and courage, as Australians have shown in spades during the pandemic. What we got was old thinking and a lack of ambition.

The budget could have taken a crack at some big national problems: fixing our massive digital skills shortage, grappling with the systemic underpayment of our precious care workers, and setting ambitious goals for innovation. Instead, we got restoration, not transformation.

Australia needs to reflect on Biden’s agenda. If nations want world-beating economies, government is going to need to be more actively engaged. The driving­ forces of prosperity since the 1980s, globalisation and free trade, favoured a hands-off approach­. But they have largely run their course. Our future prosperity­ lies in innovation, science, technology and man­u­facturing — and smart govern­ment really makes a difference.

That doesn’t mean the jobs of the future will all require coding skills or a lab coat, but these kinds of jobs are likely to drive national growth. The election of Biden and a strong congressional showing from the Democrats will position the US government to become more active in harnessing those forces, and signal the end of passive­ government in the innovation age.

Australia is well-placed to be one of those successful economies. We have all the elements — a good education system, great ­universities, brilliant scientists. What’s missing is real engagement from government. The budget­ was the chance to turn things around, and support Australians to truly face the future. Instead, we got crushing timidity.

Many Australians watching next week’s election will welcome a Biden victory as a return to normality. But one of the lessons of 2020 is that there is really no such thing as normal. Not any more. Australia needs to prepare for the 2020s to look very different from the decades that preceded it. The opportunity to be resilient, to adjust­, is there. But the window is closing. What is needed is the courage to change.

Clare O’Neil is Labor’s federal spokeswoman on innovation, technology and the future of work