The Liberal party & climate change

1 January 1970

Re a Malcolm Turnbull OpEd on climate change:

I will never forget the televised sight of your predecessor, Senator Robert Hill, emerging from the Kyoto Summit grinning like a red-arsed monkey - not because (at this most vital of meetings) he had helped to save the planet, but because he had managed to reduce Australia's greenhouse emission responsibilities.

Hill had arm-wrestled other delegates and blocs till they agreed to Australia INCREASING emissions.

He brought this 'triumph' home a few days later, and made much political capital of it.

Then there is John Howard's pathetic record of foot-dragging and downplaying on this issue, which threatens the end of civilised life.

Since 1996, where leadership was needed from the Liberal Party, there was none.

In other words your party's credibility on this issue is zero. You have no right to criticise anyone.

You seem a lot brighter than Hill and Howard - not exactly the compliment of the century, I acknowledge. Let's hope that translates into some action that means something.

You have kids too. They should be worth more to you than anything else, including the sacred cows of productivity and political gain.

Do you want them and their kids to inhabit a lawless world with a few hundred million climate refugees, where national borders are unpoliceable and (worst of all to a banker, I guess) markets contract?