Environment no longer a problem

From the political tone at a state and federal level, it would appear climate change is not only no longer a problem but also no longer a politically viable battlefront for the government.

In fact, in a matter of just three months the possibility of changing our way of life in any way to mitigate global warming has become such a leprous topic that Kevin Rudd would rather fight an election on the wildly popular issue of health reform.

How has it come to this? The 2007 election that saw Rudd’s steep rise to power was touted as the world’s first climate change election. The global financial crisis came out of nowhere and $43 billion magically appeared. But virtually none of that money was allocated to the projects that would have perfectly met the new crisis and the government’s outstanding election commitments: massive new infrastructure, new technologies, new job markets, and a genuine kick-start for a new energy economy and associated industries in Australia.

The only environmental spend in the stimulus package, insulation, has burdened Rudd with overstated but seemingly endless claims of negligence and disregard. And for a government wanting to be an international player, the Copenhagen Climate Cop-Out signalled that even weak and watery domestic aspirations were no longer likely to bear popular fruit.

And now, in Bizarro Australia, the doting media spends its weekend in Tony Abbott’s backyard while he bounces around the pool with his daughters. This passes for public interest in the same way as calling Peter Garrett ‘batty’ passes for ‘humour’ or Lara Bingle’s public image going down the toilet passes for irony.

The ultimate punchline must be the attention given to problems we are yet to create over existing problems too tricky to deal with – bring on Wingnut’s fully paid maternity leave.

The obvious response is for Kevin Rudd to apologise to the nation’s unborn babies, before announcing a plan to pay maternity leave until the child is old enough to vote – fully costed and guaranteed not to increase any taxes for at least four years, after a committee has been convened to consider the review of an inquiry into such a move, after the next election, once it has gone to a referendum.

Or we could just talk about Speedos.