Greens stir Gillard ghosts in call for climate coalition

Di Natale to appeal to Shorten to work with Greens to combat climate change.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: AAP

Richard Di Natale will appeal ­directly to Bill Shorten to work with the Greens in a Gillard-era ­inspired coalition after May 18 to combat ­climate change, warning the Labor leader he will never reach a bipartisan position with the Coalition.

As Scott Morrison ramps up his attack against a Labor-Greens ­alliance, the Greens leader will today use his National Press Club election address to urge the ­Opposition Leader to negotiate a ­comprehensive energy policy with him. “My message to Bill Shorten is that you can’t achieve bipartisanship with the Liberals because the Liberals and Nationals can’t even agree among themselves,” Senator Di Natale will say.

“The only hope for bipartisanship is that the Liberals get a hiding, especially in key seats like Kooyong and Higgins, and voters send a clear message that climate denialism and coal hugging is no longer a viable political strategy.

“So I say to Labor, don’t follow the take-it-or-leave-it approach of Kevin Rudd in 2009, but let us work together, just like we did with Julia Gillard in 2011, to deliver a climate policy that gives future generations a chance.”

Under Ms Gillard, Labor clinched a deal with then Greens leader Bob Brown in 2010 to form minority government, after agreeing to a host of demands from the minor party. They included the ­establishment of a climate change committee, which delivered the unpopular carbon tax, a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, political donations reforms and a referendum on recognising indigenous Australians.

Senator Di Natale’s climate pitch to Labor comes amid increasing scrutiny on Mr Shorten’s target to reduce emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. The Labor leader admitted on Monday night during the first election leaders debate that it was not possible to give a costing.

Opposition energy and climate change spokesman Mark Butler said yesterday it was impossible to cost the policy because Labor was not putting a direct carbon price on businesses.

“It certainly would not be ­imposing a carbon tax, any more than Malcolm Turnbull or Scott Morrison have,” Mr Butler said. “Because what we’ve decided to do after talking exhaustively with business groups over the last 12 or 18 months is simply adopt the safeguards mechanism that was introduced by Malcolm Turnbull. Now all that mechanism does is set a limit on carbon pollution. Businesses are able to stick to their limit, then they won’t hear from the government any more.”

The Greens have criticised Labor’s plan to use international carbon credits to meet the 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon abatement needed in the next decade to reach the 45 per cent target.

Experts predict the policy could cost $25 billion, while the ­Coalition estimates the cost could be as high as $35bn.

Mr Shorten has insisted it would have the “same economic impact” as the Liberals’ 26 per cent emissions reduction target. While Labor has targeted the Liberal Party’s preferences deal with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and the Nationals’ ­favourable treatment of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, the Prime Minister has repeatedly accused Mr Shorten of working side by side with the Greens.

Mr Morrison has highlighted the Greens’ long-held support for death taxes, which the party has been forced to drop in the wake of the Coalition’s scare campaign.

Campaigning in Perth yesterday, the Prime Minister declared: “What Clive Palmer is not going to do, which Bill Shorten and the Greens are going to do, Labor and the Greens are going to put a $387bn tax bill on Australians, which is going to slow our economy and cost people’s jobs.”

Mr Morrison said West Australian companies, which combined provided 100,000 jobs, would be ­directly hit by Mr Shorten’s ­emissions-reduction plan.

Of the Greens’ nine senators, six are up for re-election — Sarah Hanson-Young in South Australia, Jordon Steele-John in Western Australia, Larissa Waters in Queensland, Janet Rice in Victoria, Mehreen Faruqi in NSW and Nick McKim in Tasmania.

Senators Hanson-Young and Steele-John have cautioned that their seats could be at risk from One Nation, while Senator Hanson’s party and UAP also put other Greens seats in play.

The Greens want to retain all of their seats, including lower house MP Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne. They are eyeing off the Melbourne seats of Macnamara, Higgins, Kooyong and Wills, as well as Canberra, as possible gains.

Rob Oakeshott, one of the kingmakers who handed Ms Gillard government in 2010 and helped introduce the carbon price, is a real possibility of picking up the marginal NSW seat of Cowper from the Nationals. Mr Shorten said last week Labor was 120 years old and he would not be beholden to any one else, including Senator Di Natale.

Senator Di Natale will tell the National Press Club that history has shown the Greens can work constructively with Labor and the next parliament is a “chance to do big things again”. “It has to be because that’s what’s required … The IPCC ­(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have given us less than 12 years to change course on dangerous climate change that threatens everything about our way of life,” he will say.

Labor and the Greens used their numbers to block numerous pieces of government legislation in the Senate during the 45th parliament.