Abbott's Ridiculous Response To Divestment "A Raw Ideological Refusal To Face Facts"
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The reality is that the coal industry is where the tobacco industry was. For decades they’ve each paid PR companies to market for them and made political donations, in an effort to hide the harm their products cause. It took the world a while to wake up to the connection between cigarette companies and the failure of governments to act against them, but now with fossil fuels, people like former Liberal leader John Hewson are beginning to ask the right questions. Who influences the Abbott government? The Minerals Council of Australia? The mining companies themselves? People know that Peabody has paid Burson-Marsteller to do the PR on coal.
The sad fact is that Australia is no longer a democracy, it is a plutocracy. Abbott’s is a government for the rich, by the rich. People are sick of the revolving door between government and business. It must end.
With Clive Palmer’s help, Abbott has repealed our emissions trading scheme, which was hailed by the International Energy Agency as template legislation for the rest of the world. He has defunded the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, leaving it unable to support any new projects. He has trashed investor confidence with a review of the Renewable Energy Target, which could yet be saved if Labor and the Palmer United Party vote with the Greens to reject any change.
What Abbott’s efforts amount to is “economic suicide,” to quote an adviser to the German Chancellor. The divestment movement proves that Australians won’t be left behind, even if our government is determined to cling to the age of fossil fuels. It’s a bellwether moment and the pendulum is swinging away from the Abbott government, towards restoring our democracy, towards science and towards a clean energy future.
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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/18/fossil-fuel-divestments-are-putting-the-abbott-government-on-notice