I don’t comment on politics often but this has been on my mind.
We have protests. We have affirmative action from the people. We have solar power and wind power. Why does the Australian government not understand or seem to act?
It comes down to economics and coal. Coal the core of our trade and how can the government say coal is bad and keep selling it? Basically it can’t. If they stopped the coal industry tomorrow our economy would collapse.
I get that but I’m not happy about it.
What the Australian government needs to do is look for new industries for Australia to have at its core and start the move away from coal. That might take fifty years but we should start now. Successive governments have had decades on decades to more our economy from a commodity base to more dependable footing say manufacturing, finance, technology and ideas. But I can’t see any attempts at that. Now, we have our backs against the wall. We have a lot of coal but soon we aren’t going to be able to sell as much of it as we used to. Coal creates greenhouse gases and as other economies get on board with this, they will change and we should be changing ahead of the game. For example, China buys coal and burns coal. In Shanghai you have to wear a mask in the winter due to the coal burning power stations and I believe Beijing is the same. China are investing in solar energy and that’s probably where my solar panels were manufactured.
What I’d like to see is for the Australian government to support climate change action. Listen to the voices of the people who want recycling, who want less waste, who want less plastics in the environment. We want support for electric cars so we aren’t contributing to more greenhouse gases. Supporting climate change action doesn’t have to mean economic loss, but it does mean the government acknowledging the will of the people when it comes to climate change action.
The government talks about banning protesters and Morrison PM says that kids are too young to worry about such things. Scott Morrison you are being an ass and Dutton, your dopey comrade, is just too ridiculous for words, calling on the police to sue protestors because the courts won’t punish them. Cue eye roll. Ever heard of the separation of powers?
Australian government start talking about a positive future and about where Australia will be in fifty years or even one hundred years’ time. Plan to have a no coal future and build us an economy that can support us and where we can actively reduce greenhouse gasses and still live.
Not all Australian governments are blind and stupid. Canberra is moving to phase LPG (gas) out by 2030, I think. Besides being pricey LPG contributes to greenhouse gases. Canberra is set to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, which is great but there’s more to be done obviously.
The Australian Government missed the boat on a future fund based on the mining and petroleum sectors. I mean the then Labor government did try, but it brought the government into disarray. Rich mining moguls have way too much money and power! One day all those minerals will run out and Australians will be turning out their empty pockets and will need to go begging. But that’s the greed culture for you.
I have included a few links. The one in the Conversation talks about how the statistics say one thing but if you include the downstream industries that mining is fifty percent of the economy and is pretty interesting about economics generally.
Warning the Mining Council can be a bit right wing.
https://minerals.org.au/coal-community
http://theconversation.com/australias-five-pillar-economy-mining-40701
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 
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