Climate activists in Newcastle, already the world's biggest coal port, have been campaigning to stop a planned upgrade. The upgrade will double the port's coal export capacity and worsen climate change, they say.
The June 14 Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the new coal port infrastructure was being built up by several metres — in anticipation of rising sea levels.
The Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group — builders of the $900 million project — refused to say if the build-up was in preparation for the effects of climate change.
Spokesperson for climate action group Rising Tide, Georgina Woods, told the SMH: "When people were addressing the expert panel, a lot of them raised what we saw as the irony of a project that was making a contribution to climate change but was also in an area that we knew was very vulnerable to the effects of climate change."
Short-sighted cynicism from the coal industry is nothing new. An even bigger problem is that this kind of cynicism also defines the climate policy of Australia's big political parties.
By June 18, it was clear that the Rudd government had made sure its own policy of legislating a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020 would not be passed by parliament.
The coalition had said it supported the renewable energy legislation and was prepared to vote for it. Yet the government cynically moved to tie the renewable energy bill to its controversial Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) bill, making the bills interdependent.
The coalition, the Greens and the independent senators all oppose the CPRS — but for very different reasons. The climate denialist-riddled Coalition argues it doesn't give enough "certainty" for business. The Greens rightly point out the flawed scheme should be scrapped because it rewards the biggest polluters and will make it harder, not easier, to cut emissions quickly.
The decision by PM Kevin Rudd and climate change minister Penny Wong to tie the renewable energy and CPRS bills together ensured neither would pass. The ALP was happy to sacrifice its renewable energy policy so it could point the finger at the Coalition.
The Coalition and independent senators successfully moved to delay the renewable energy bill until August and intend to do the same with the CPRS.
In a June 19 opinion piece in the SMH, Wong accused parliamentary opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull of standing in the way of "a decent legacy on climate change". That's certainly true. But it's also a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.