I’ve been struggling to find the right label for Labor leader Anthony Albanese for some time. I don’t make these things up. They are an expression of the essence of the person. But today it is finally clear.
As all of Australia is burning, at News:
As the PM Scott Morrison flies off into the cloying smoke on holidays, via New Daily:
Ten years ago, an ambitious young Liberal MP led the charge attacking Victoria’s police chief Christine Nixon for choosing to eat dinner at a gastropub as the horror of Black Saturday, the worst bushfires in the state’s history, unfolded.
Scott Morrison was that MP’s name and he did not hold back when condemning her actions when asked on the ABC’s Q&A program in April 2010.
“She’s clearly made a bad judgment call. That happens to people from time to time, but this was a very serious issue,” Mr Morrison said.
…But now, it’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison under attack for flying out of Australia with his wife and daughters for an overseas holiday as bushfires continue to burn at home.
The New Daily confirmed on Monday he had flown overseas to a mystery location before a busy schedule of official trips in the region, including to India in January.
Where is Albo the Idiot? Is he stepping into the leadership void? Proving his credentials to the Aussie people as the climate denying PM hides in a hammock? Getting down and dirty comforting those who’ve lost property and life? Supporting those who are risking life and limb to fight the raging beast? Making Scott Morrison look like the greatest tosser in the country?
No, he’s instead being hoisted on his freshly minted pro-coal petard:
Surging demand for coal in India and Southeast Asia, driven by rising electricity use, is set to fuel a strong increase in Australian coal exports over the next five years.
…The report predicts Australia’s share of the global export market will rise, sparking calls for new coalmines in Queensland and NSW. Resources Minister Matt Canavan said “we will need more than Adani” to keep up with demand for coal from developing nations in Asia.
“That will almost certainly mean greater coal production in the Galilee Basin,” Senator Canavan said. “This report gives some confidence in the forecast potential of the Galilee Basin.”
…The forecast rise in exports is likely to increase attacks by environmental activists. Senator Canavan has written to Siemens global chief executive Joe Kaeser, urging him “not to be intimidated by the noisy anti-coal minority” after the technology company flagged it would review its recent contract with Adani in the wake of activist attacks.
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon, who holds the NSW coalmining seat of Hunter, said growth in coal exports would provide good opportunities for mining in the Galilee Basin.
…Labor leader Anthony Albanese declined to comment.
This has to go down as the WORST failure of judgment by an opposition leader in living memory (and for Labor that is saying something). It is so bad that it is hard to believe.
The good news for Albo the Idiot is that this is exaggerated. Thermal coal prices are crashing today becasue there is way too much of the stuff.
Alas, that will not matter politcally. You can be certain that the nationalist parties that captured QLD last election for the Coalition will keep the coal hope burning bright, fanned ceaselessly by the Murdoch Press. Which illustrates a couple of critical political points for Albo the Idiot:
- you can’t out-coal the Coaliton and its preference mates;
- to try will only lose inner city seats to The Greens and prevent Labor from picking up marginal blue ribbon electorates;
- but you can outflank the Coalition and win QLD with immigration cuts, that will make Australia much more sustainable as it burns to the ground.
But that, my friends, is too complex for Albo the Idiot.
