Green dreaming and the ALP
When considering Labor’s victory, this is the lesson that should occupy Anthony Albanese’s mind. There is little to suggest Labor was rewarded for its environmental performance. Labor’s message ahead of the election was to prioritise the Tasmanian salmon industry and jobs ahead of Green demands to shut it down. There was a belated recognition by Labor that gas would be an essential part of the energy transition.
In fact, Labor’s first-term record on the environment is more notable for the things it did not do. This includes not setting a 2035 emission target, not delivering a federal environmental protection agency and not delivering a redrawn Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Personal animosity that existed between Mr Albanese and his Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, no doubt made things difficult, as did the extremist positions of the Greens. There is no reason to believe the Greens will change or that Labor should rethink its approach.
On the environment, Labor would be wise to focus on limiting the damage of its renewable energy rollout and to negotiate sensible, bipartisan EPBC reforms that lock the Greens out of the debate.
Labor’s environment wing has wasted no time delivering an ambit claim to the spoils of victory with its demand to make good on what it would consider to be the party’s first-term failures. But the Labor Environment Action Network ginger group is overplaying its hand with the claim that it had helped Labor see off the Greens. More persuasive on this score is the fact the Liberal Party gave its preferences to Labor as an act of public good and that the Greens had lost their way. Greens leader Adam Bandt stands a real chance of losing his seat.