Bob Brown urges Greens to reject Anthony Albanese’s ‘pathetic’ safeguard mechanism

Bob Brown – who torpedoed Kevin Rudd’s carbon reduction scheme – urges Greens to reject ‘pathetic’ safeguard mechanism.

Bob Brown attacked the Prime Minister and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen over their ‘craven attitude to more coalmines and gas fracking’. Picture: Chris Kidd

Former Greens leader Bob Brown – who torpedoed Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme – has urged the left-wing party to reject Anthony Albanese’s “pathetic” safeguard mechanism and increase its emissions reduction targets in response to an “existential” climate crisis.

Ahead of the Greens partyroom finalising its position on the safeguard mechanism as early as Thursday, Mr Brown attacked the Prime Minister and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen over their “craven attitude to more coalmines and gas fracking”.

The inaugural federal Greens leader, who led the party until his retirement in 2012, pledged to personally campaign against Labor ahead of the next federal election and accused Mr Bowen of “orchestrating” a pressure campaign against the Greens by prominent climate and conservation groups.

After tearing-up his Australian Conservation Foundation life membership on Wednesday, Mr Brown backed Greens leader Adam Bandt’s opposition to new coal and gas projects and said Labor was “culpable” in fanning the climate crisis.

“The Greens have not been saying close the current mines, they’ve been saying no new ones for export. Between now and the next election I for one will be nailing Anthony Albanese on every coalmine he ticks-off on, and on every climate outcome,” Mr Brown told The Australian.

“Don’t tell us, Prime Minister, that we’re ambulance chasing, the time for that is over. This is the time for reasonable and mature responses to the global science on this, and that’s not what we’re getting in this pathetic legislation.

“It’s not about politics, this is about policy. What I know is that Labor, which is already on 33 per cent (primary vote), will be punished at the next elections if this is all that they can do.”

Amid 11th-hour talks between Mr Bowen and Mr Bandt, described by sources close to the ­negotiations as “broad-ranging and positive”, Mr Brown urged the Greens to lift their 2030 emissions reduction target of 75 per cent. Mr Brown, who remains a “sounding board” for Greens MPs, cited this week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and said the UN was pushing for “100 per cent reduction by 2035”.

“It says that even the Greens need to toughen up their figures. We are in an existential crisis in which that report shows that more than three billion people face dire consequences from climate change, and here’s the government saying we won’t negotiate pouring petrol on the fire,” he said.

“The best Labor can come up with is saying we’ll tick-off on more coalmines and gas operations. It is culpable. It’s not good enough.

“And that’s why I took on the ACF because it should be backing the Greens and not the Labor Party on this. It’s their job to take a strong environmental stand and it is very upsetting that we have such groups saying the Greens should just accept what Labor dishes up.”

Mr Bandt, who visited Mr Brown after claiming the Greens leadership in early 2020, on Wednesday described his predecessor as a “hero of mine” and welcomed the former leader’s support on opposing new coal and gas projects.

“Bob Brown … helped deliver world-leading climate legislation and I always listen very carefully to what he says,” Mr Bandt said.

The Greens leader will require unanimous support when he calls an extraordinary partyroom meeting to determine a final position on the safeguard mechanism, which is due to commence on July 1 and will force 215 heavy-emitting facilities to slash emissions by nearly 5 per cent each year out to 2030.

The Albanese government is understood to want its safeguard mechanism-crediting legislation to pass through the House of Representatives on Thursday but could delay a vote until the Greens declare their position.

If the government brings on a lower house vote, the Greens will abstain before deciding the fate of the legislation in the Senate.

After the Coalition formally opposed the safeguard mechanism changes, the government needs the Greens’ 11 senators and two crossbenchers to pass its signature climate change policy.

Mr Bandt has proposed extra sitting days if they need more time to land a position.

A key component of the Greens’ pitch to ban new coal and gas projects is that there is enough existing domestic supply to service the energy system out to 2040.

Mr Brown said the safeguard mechanism was for the current Greens partyroom to decide and he was “not intervening on their deliberations”.

“I was in Sydney last week and we’re running to the NSW election and I can tell you that people are turning to the Greens because they can see they have a genuine response to climate change – not a big business one.

They are not corporate-­captured, as Labor and the Coalition are.”