Aussie energy wars go global as ABC spruiks Tory plan to cut out coal by 2025
ABC reporter Steve Cannane looks to the motherland in an attempt to solve Australia’s energy woes. Aunty’s man in Europe on the ABC News website, yesterday:
As Tony Abbott and other prominent Coalition MPs make the case that Australia should be building new coal-fired power stations, Conservatives in Britain are pushing a very different agenda. The Tory Government wants to end the use of unabated coal in the UK within seven years ...
What about the British Opposition? UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks to Greenpeace’s website, August 17, 2015:
... it’s quite possible that in future years coal prices will start to go up again around the world. And maybe there will be a case for what is actually very high quality coal, particularly in South Wales, being mined again.
Coal-loving Corbyn doesn’t get a look in but Cannane did speak to UK Energy Minister Claire Perry. The Tory frontbencher, yesterday:
Conservatism to me is about protecting what you inherit ... whether it’s making sure the economy is robust for the next generation or whether it’s about stewarding this beautiful environment that we live in ...
Who’s that comment aimed at? Former prime minister Tony Abbott in St Kilda, yesterday:
... coal is the cheapest form of power. We shouldn’t just export the stuff and not use it ourselves
Cannane explains at the very end why the UK is ready to ditch coal ... ABC News online, yesterday:
... it also has nuclear plants which contribute to base load power.
Malcolm Turnbull on Australia adopting nuclear power. 2GB, March 16 last year:
... a nuclear power station, even assuming you could get the political consensus ... would take many, many years to build.
That consensus s eems very far away. Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon speaks to 2CCC Canberra radio, September 13 last year:
... talking about nuclear in any shape or form now would be a very, very big mistake for this country.
Nice try, ABC News, but the Brits don’t have the answer for us after all.
Labor’s Kim Carr speaks in Canberra, December 7 last year:
We can’t even have a conversation in this country about nuclear energy ...
Isn’t time Australia took on that conversation and stopped avoiding the N-word? Labor leader Bill Shorten in Hobart, March 17 last year:
In the last month we have seen from this Government, talk of coal plants ... and indeed some Liberals are talking about nuclear power. The summary of all these thought bubbles is chaos ...
Elsewhere, Sky News marks a historic occasion on Twitter, Saturday:
Alice Springs Councillor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has won CLP preselection for NT seat at the next election. If elected, she would be the first Aboriginal woman in the lower house of (federal) parliament.
Ex-Sky News host and Labor senator Kristina Keneally replies to her old channel’s tweet, yesterday:
Two words: Linda Burney
It seems Sky News deleted the tweet. The very first Aboriginal woman in the House of Reps Linda Burney gives her inaugural speech, September 7, 2016:
The Aboriginal part of my story is important, it is core to who I am ... If I can stand in this place, so can they (other Aboriginal people). Never let anyone tell you, you are limited by anything.