In his speech to the Press Club on 2nd February, Tony Abbott once
again called up the spectre of intergenerational theft:
And
reducing the deficit is the fair thing to do – because it ends the
intergenerational theft against our children and grandchildren.
We’ve
never been a country that’s ripped off future generations to pay for today.
And
under my government, we never will.
"Intergenerational
theft" has been a catchcry of the Prime Minister and other ministers such
as Joe Hockey and Eric Abetz. It has invariably been used in defence of
the Government's budget and its cost-cutting measures. According to them
we should suffer some pain now in order to leave the nation in a sound state
for our children and grandchildren.
On one
level this seems eminently commendable. But it completely misses the
point of another area of government policy where today's Government is severely
ripping off future generations. Our children and grandchildren and their
descendants are being ripped off because of the Government's tepid and
ineffective policy on climate change. There is no Government
understanding of a need for urgent action and of the impact ineffective action
now will have on the economy of the future and the health and lifestyle of our
descendants as well as the health of the natural world.
And the
truly amazing thing is that no-one in the Government seems to recognise the
inconsistency of their position on inter-generational theft. A cynical
person could claim that at least some Government MPs do see this inconsistency
– and just choose to ignore it. After all it would be decidedly awkward to
concede that climate change is a really important and urgent issue and
therefore know that not taking effective action will severely penalise future
generations. It's much easier to pay lip-service to the climate problem
with a shonky "direct action" plan and to claim that the government
will do more when other major emitters take more action. Interestingly,
the fact that many other major emitters are starting to take more action
appears to have escaped the attention of the Abbott Government.
Obviously
the Government's tepid climate policy suits those dinosaur Liberals and
Nationals – and there appear to be quite a few of them - who are climate change
deniers.
I
suspect that the inconsistency about intergenerational equity/theft probably is
seen by very few, if any, government MPs. After all, many of them still don't
seem to understand that a great number of people oppose their budget because it
is inherently unfair – that it places all of the pain on the less well-off in
our society. The Prime Minister, the Treasurer and many others just don't get
it. Many Coalition MPs still seem to believe that the policies can be
delivered if they improve their communication strategy. In their self-centred
view those benighted electors just don't understand. In reality very
large numbers of electors understand only too well.
The
core of their problem is that they are out of touch with ordinary
Australians. They are purblind inhabitants of a series of ivory towers.
Until
the Government starts to take effective action on climate change, it should
stop using the argument of intergenerational theft to justify other aspects of
policy. That would eliminate one of the areas in which it renders itself
ridiculous.
Hildegard
Northern
Rivers
* Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at gmail dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.
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