Thirty three years ago, on this day, May 4th, 1992, in the great southern land…
The Federal Opposition will seek to exploit the Government’s embarrassment over its on-again off-again resource security legislation by prolonging debate in the Senate until after Tuesday’s meeting of the Labor Caucus.
Garran, R. 1992. Opposition to exploit resource indecision. Australian Financial Review, May 4, p 9.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 356ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was the new Keating government was busy burying any residual “green” ambitions, and the opposition, ahead of an election less than a year away, was punching the bruise and trying to peel away voters from Labor who had got Labor over the line in 1990 (not by attracting them to the LNP, but by making Labor look hopeless).
What I think we can learn from this
Two things – the game is the game and that “Moments” where everyone pretends to care about The Environment are almost by definition fleeting – normal service resumes fairly quickly.
What happened next The LNP managed to lose the unloseable election in March 1993 – Keating’s “sweetest victory”. John Hewson, LOTO at the time, has reinvented himself as a Nice Sane Guy on environment.
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 4, 1990 – coal industry sweats over greenie influence
May 4th, 2012 – The Heartland Institute tries the Unabomber smear. It, er, blows up in their face…
May 4, 2016 – South Australian Premier preening at Emissions Reduction Summit – All Our Yesterdays