Tag: MPCCC

Categories
Australia Carbon Pricing

September 27, 2010 – Gillard creates the MPCCC

Sixteen years ago, on this day, September 27th, 2010,

J Gillard (Prime Minister), Prime Minister establishes Climate Change Committee [and] Terms of Reference, media release, 27 September 2010.

Transcript 17390 | PM Transcripts

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 390ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.

The broader context was that Australian political elites had been well aware of carbon dioxide build up as a problem stretching back to the early 1970s They had, of course, ignored the problem for as long as possible, because there are no easy solutions, and it would interfere with the power, privilege, and profit of the donor class. 

Also it’s just not easy to fix. It’s really not, or not easy to fix within the parameters set.

After successfully tamping down concern by elites in the early 1990s and then again through the 2000s in 2006 the issue had exploded onto the public agenda, Labor had used it as a stick to beat the Liberal National Government. However, Labor in power had then monumentally fucked it up, Kevin Rudd, Penny Wong, etc.

The specific context was Julia Gillard was forced to try to clean up the mess because there was no way of having a government without carbon pricing. Therefore, she set up the multiparty climate change committee, the MPCCC. She extended invites to everyone; the Independents and the Greens took her up, and the Liberals and Nationals, of course, did not.

What I think we can learn from this is that politics is the slow boring of hard boards, as per old Maxie [Weber] and but meanwhile some solutions, some problems rather just keep growing if you ignore them or a half-assed and solution solving them, i.e. wicked problems, and of course super wicked problems.

What happened next The MPC beavered away, produced its reports and recommendations, and this became the legislation for the clean energy package, which passed in September 2011 and the emissions trading portion of that began on first of July 2012 and may have helped reduce emissions for a bit. Then it was of course abolished by Tony Abbott.

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On this topic, you might like these other posts on All Our Yesterdays

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References

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You can see the chronological list of All Our Yesterdays “on this day” posts here.

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.

If you want to get involved, let me know.

If you want to invite me on your podcast, that would boost my ego and probably improve the currently pitiful hit-rate on this site (the two are not-unrelated).

Also on this day: 

September 27, 1962 – “Silent Spring” published as a book

September 27, 1988 – UNEP should become world eco-regime

September 27, 1988 – Margaret Thatcher comes out as a lentil-eating greenie…

September 27, 1995 – Greenhouse progress in Australia? None. Zip. Zero. 

September 27, 2007 – Kyoto Inaction Protest

Categories
Australia

October 7, 2010 – Gillard scraps assembly, goes for “MPCCC”

Fourteen years ago, on this day, October 7th, 2010,

Gillard scraps climate assembly
By Paul Osborne

October 7, 2010 — 5.12pm

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has scrapped her election promise of a citizens’ assembly to deal with climate change, a scheme the opposition described as a dud anyway.

Ms Gillard said other aspects of the party’s election platform – including subsidising the replacement of older cars, rolling out renewable energy projects linked to $1 billion of new transmission lines and improving energy efficiency – would still go ahead.

Ms Gillard on Thursday chaired the first meeting of the multi-party climate change committee – one of the promises made to the Australian Greens and independents to gain support to form minority government.

In a communique released after the meeting, the committee confirmed its intention to “work co-operatively across party lines

The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 390ppm. As of 2024 it is 422ppm, but check here for daily measures. 

The context was that Julia Gillard had challenged Kevin Rudd for the leadership at the Labor Party in July, having had enough of his bullshit. There are some quite interesting and plausible accounts of what happened and how it happened. Then she’d gone to an early election. It had been going okay. Mostly, it’s gonna be tight, but Labor looked like they were going to win. Then some leaks started happening from within the cabinet. Funny that. So it was a hung parliament and Gillard had to negotiate with independents like Tony Windsor and Rob Oakshott, and the Greens to form a minority government. And therefore, her idea of a climate assembly – having 150 people to talk about the issue for a year, which she had been persuaded by some Blairite advisor – was now a non-starter, because the Independents wouldn’t wear it. The Independents wanted action. And so therefore, there was the Multi Party Committee on Climate Change, which she invited the Liberals and the Nationals to join (while knowing full well that they wouldn’t).

What we learn is that the climate assembly idea might have worked, if Rudd had come up with it (see Rudd’s “2020” event in 2008). But these processes always get dominated by the loudest, most cashed up and determined. They’re rarely particularly deliberative, especially if the stakes are high. And anyway, by 2010, the timing was all wrong. What could have looked like a sensible circuit breaker now just looked like weakness.

What happened next? How long have you got? MPCCC had its meetings, advised by Ross Garneau, etc. It came up with some legislation. Gillard put that through Parliament. It did an advertising campaign. But by then, Tony Abbott had successfully framed it as “a great big tax on everything” and had also fatally wounded Gillard in public perception. I think Gillard was a successful Prime Minister in terms of the amount of legislation she got through. She was a steady hand on the tiller. But then she also lacks certain things. For example, a penis and children. Therefore, awful, awful woman. 

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: 

October 7, 1989 – Alexander Downer says mining lobby”weak and gutless”, too soft on greenies

October 7, 2010 – Julia Gillard scraps the “Climate Assembly” idea