GREENS senate candidate for NSW Michael Osborne says climate change is the “overarching issue” of the upcoming election, while Hume Christian Democratic Party candidate Adrian Van Der Byl questions the truth of a changing climate at all.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The two politicians sat side by side at Monday night’s Politics In the Pub.
Joined by ACT Labor Senator Katy Gallagher, Hume Labor candidate Aoife Champion, Get Up’s Dr John Egan and Hume Greens candidate Michaela Sherwood, the monthly debate centred around ‘standing up for people and the planet’.
Mr Osborne said regional communities and low socioeconomic demographics would be the hardest hit by climate change.
“For me, (climate change) cuts across issues of future proofing this country, of looking at our energy systems, of looking at how we make communities more resilient and how we plan for the future,” Mr Osborne, a Newcastle City councillor and environmental engineer, said.
“Climate change is also about fairness. When we talk about climate change and what we need to do, not only do we have to reduce our emissions but we have to bring along communities so they can adapt.
“Whether we like it or not the climate is changing and we can pretend that it doesn’t exist and is not happening, but the global economy is shifting…”
One man determined that climate change is a myth was Mr Van Der Byl.
“I would take the opposite view to all that’s been spoken here,” the CDP candidate said.
“Is anthropogenic climate change real? The antarctic ice is getting bigger and scientists are resigning because of the lie of climate change…”
Concerns blossom
A BLOSSOM appeared on an apple tree in Ms Sherwood’s backyard a few weeks ago, she told the crowd.
“The growing seasons are changing,” she claimed.
“A lot of the emphasis on deforestation has been in terms of reducing the accelerating rate of global warming. I’d like us to think about the impacts now of global warming... (and) I’d like to see funding increase to CSIRO for looking at solutions now to the current impacts.”
Questions around the protection of forests and funding for community energy projects fueled the discussion.
Dr Egan said the topic was one close to his heart.
“We are almost too late. This is the most important thing, it doesn’t matter whether you are gay, lesbian, black, white rich or poor, murderer or saint, this is the issue,” he said.
Ms Champion drew on a childhood favourite movie to make her point.
“In (Back To The Future 2) they go to the year 2015 and their cars are fueled by biofuels. That was our vision then for where we would be by now,” she said.
“We are now 27 years later from 1989 and having the same conversation… but where do we need to be?
“It’s estimated that 2.5 trillion dollars is going to be spent on renewables in the Asia Pacific region. That’s a bandwagon we need to be on. We need to be a nation that is turned to for this investment.
There’s a huge renewable sector that needs to be paid attention to and people are paying attention, just not those in government.”
She said Goulburn was “apt” for renewable energy industries and claimed that Hume MP Angus Taylor was a “denier”.
“You have a member who supports coal seam gas, who hates wind farms and is a climate change denier. That’s hardly representative of you, where 71pc of coalition voters even support renewables,” Ms Champion said.
A spokesperson for Mr Taylor, who was an apology at the event, denied that he was a climate change skeptic, and pointed the Post to a series of speeches on Mr Taylor’s website.