On this day 36 years ago, it was reported that the Federal Environment Minister Graham Richardson said there might need to be a referendum….
The Federal Minister for the Environment, Senator Richardson, has floated the idea of holding a referendum to increase the Commonwealth’s powers to override the States on environmental issues such as the greenhouse effect.
He raised the idea at an environmental conference at the weekend.
Dunn, R. 1989. Plebiscite mooted. Australian Financial Review, May 22
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that in early 1989 everyone was running around talking about climate change. The denialists hadn’t got their act together properly yet (that would come) and neither had business (which traditionally waits anyway, to see if these things burn themselves out).
What I think we can learn from this is that it was obvious to people then that there would be opposition from state governments and that log-jams would be the norm.
What happened next. There was no referendum (and probably a good thing, because they usually fail in Australia). And there was opposition from state governments and that log-jams were the norm.
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What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
May 22, 1972 – Horizon doco “Do you Dig National Parks?” – All Our Yesterdays
May 22, 2007 – “Clean coal” power station by 2014, honest…
May 22 – Build Back Biodiversity: International Biodiversity Day