Thirty six years ago, on this day, March 21st, 1990,
Some Labour spokesmen have forecast that the government could lose at least six seats from its last parliamentary majority of 22, and scrape back in several doubtful seats only with green preferences. Mr Hawke showed his worry about the impact of protest votes when he made his final campaign appearance yesterday [ 21 March] at the National Press Club in Canberra. He called on young and disaffected voters not to vote green but, if they did so, to direct their second preferences to Labour. “When you wake up on 25 March,” he said, “there won’t be a Democrat government or a green independent government.”
Milliken, R. 1990. Green vote emerges as crucial factor in election. The Independent – London, 22 March, p.14.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 354ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that the ALP had come to power in 1983, helped massively by a promise to protect the Franklin river from yet another damned dam. They’d done a bit on environment – their record was not actively terrible the way it has become.
The specific context was that the Liberals had proposed a more ambitious emissions reduction target than Labour. The Liberals had also convinced themselves that they could have lunch with the head of the Australian Conservation Foundation and he and the ACF would then “tell” all the greenies how to vote. They didn’t really get it, did they?
What I think we can learn from this is that politicians lie and prevaricate (this will come as a shock, I know).
What happened next – Labor squeaked back in. Because of the green vote, they had to institute an “Ecologically Sustainable Development” policy process. This went on through 1990-1 and then got totally kneecapped by the Labor government of Paul Keating.
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.
References
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Also on this day:
March 21, 1768 – Joseph Fourier born
March 21, 1980 – chair of Statoil board acknowledges the “social cost” of the “CO2 problem”
March 21, 1994 – Yes to UNFCCC, yes to more coal-fired plants. Obviously. #auspol
March 21, 1994 – Singleton Council approves Redbank power station