Tony Abbott: Isolated, Parochial And A Denialist Embarassment At G20 Summit
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We also learned something more about the Abbott government – that on the world stage it is incapable of grappling with sophisticated policy issues other than boiling them down to three word slogans or absurd schoolyard bravado – stop the boats, and his pledge to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin. At the G20, Abbott was more interested in complaining about the problems of implementing a $7 GP tax on medical visits. Fairfax described it as Australia’s “pimply youth” moment, the satirical website The Shovel said Abbott might just as well have been talking about parking meter problems in his home electorate of Warringah (it’s true, there is a major issue).
World leaders couldn’t care less. But it speaks volumes of the inward nature of Abbott’s entourage that they could presume that the G20 would be interested in medical co-payments, and that they should be blindsided so easily by the climate commitments. And don’t mistake the deliberate efforts of the G20 nations to embarrass Abbott on this issue, having grown exasperated by the Australian government’s actions over the past year.
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Despite all this, nothing appears to have registered with Abbott. He emerged from a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, who is leading the most radical decarbonisation of any major economy, and was the first big funder of the Green Climate Fund, to announced that Australia will not contribute.
He insisted that Australia was doing “quite enough” with its $2.5 billion Direct Action program, and the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation that he is also trying to close. Australia, therefore, will continue to be a pariah on the world stage, digging its economy into an every deeper black hole. We are, quite possibly, witnessing the most incompetent and ideologically blind government ever to hold power in Canberra. It’s effectively the Tea Party of Australia, pretending to be something else.
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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/g20-reveals-tony-abbotts-climate-change-denial-is-complete-75225
