Making a conundrum even more of a contortion

Life often throws up fascinating conundrums.



Environment Minister, Greg Hunt.

The latest arose when reading the “Ministerial Foreword” of the Emissions Reduction Fund green paper put out by our Federal Government on which public comment has been invited.

Nothing is more critical than preparing Australians to deal with the unfolding dilemma of climate change and so the content and intent of the Green Paper makes it the most important document in our country’s history.

Written with a sense of intergenerational responsibility, the Green Paper, which has at its heart the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan for the control of domestic carbon dioxide emissions, could make Australia a leader in climate change mitigation. It won’t though.

The final paragraph his Ministerial Forward, Australia’s Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, wrote: “Our goal is to conserve our natural environment while ensuring strong economic growth”.

Mr Hunt is celebrated in many quarters as a remarkably intelligent, quick thinking fellow, making it curious that he fails to understand that such an observation is contradictory.

Strong economic growth and preservation of the natural environment are diametrically opposed.

The first is about the creation of high entropy goods resulting in obscene waste that is offensive, and ultimately destructive, to the latter, the natural environment.

The irony of the document arrives in the “Executive Summary” where is says: “The Australian Government acknowledges the science of climate change and supports national and global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. It clearly doesn’t.

That is a cleverly worded statement as acknowledgement of and resultant action because of that recognition are decidedly different things and nothing our relatively new Tony Abbott-led Government has done yet suggests it actually understands the seriousness of the science.

Australia is considered a mature civilization and in claiming such a lofty position, the responsible men ought to take the time to read the thoughts of Melbourne-based philosopher, John Armstrong who wrote, “In Search of Civilization: Remaking a tarnished idea”.

He said: “Civilization is seen as a rigorous artifice, designed to save us from ourselves. Life is regarded as a mess that needs to be cleaned up.

“We need to subordinate our wayward desires to law or rationality or justice; ideas that carry a prohibition, that deny our wishes,” he wrote.

So here we face another conundrum – are we or are we not civilized? Should we opt for the latter then there is nothing else we can do but demand that our Federal Government act in a way that illustrates deep concern for those yet unborn and so without a vote or influence.

A target of five per cent drop in carbon emissions by 2020 is pitifully inadequate and if the world is to have any understandable chance of avoiding catastrophic change we need 80 per cent this decade.

 

Fewer than expected farewell Peter on a halcyon day

Peter Ross-Edwards
 in his prime.

Peter Ross-Edwards was recently farewelled by fewer than expected people on what might be described as a “halcyon” day.

That seemed appropriate for the former leader of the Victorian National Party and Member for Shepparton was in the rush of public life during what might be described as the halcyon decades of the late 20^th Century.

Mr Ross-Edwards’ October funeral, a State recognized event at Shepparton’s St Augustine’s Anglican Church, saw provision of nearly 1000 seats, but less than 300 were occupied.

The surprisingly low turnout for a fellow who had broad and deep respect within his community was not an indictment, rather the realisation that he had been effectively out of the public gaze for two decades, at least in his home city.

This fellow, known for the brevity of his conversations, appeared to have the ear of the state’s decision makers and was able it seemed, to make the impossible, possible.

He had stepped down from his very public role as the Member for Shepparton in 1991 and while he may have slipped from that public gaze, Mr Ross Edwards was still waist-deep in public life.

He chaired the Goulburn-Murray Rural Water Authority from 1994 through to 2001 and in what was an almost invisible role Mr Ross-Edwards was the chief commissioner for the City of Greater Bendigo for two years in the mid-1990s.

Mr Ross-Edwards had been in the air force for four years, he had been an integral part of the Shepparton based legal firm, P.V. Feltham and Co, and had been the president or vice president several major organizations in Shepparton.

The near empty hall at
St Augustine's Church
 in Shepparton.

To say he was in the ruck of public life in the halcyon days of the 20^th Century is in some sense unfair, but in others a comment without quarrel.

Being a decision maker is never easy, no matter what the environment, but undoubtedly the 24-hour news cycle and the emergence of its digital counterparts of the internet, Twitter and Facebook in the late 90s, have combined to make the life of public personality complex in the extreme.

Add to that the collision of “peak everything” from population through to oil along with the added complication of a human-induced changing climate bringing with it shortages of those things which allow humanity to thrive, water and food.

Those were matters simply not on the agenda for the MLA for Shepparton in his 24 years in parliament.

That however, does not lessen the importance of the task was in any way, just makes it different as the wants and needs of the electorate were both equally intense and important at the time.

Peter Ross-Edwards might have been a man of his time, but the impact of time was evident on that halcyon day in October.