A plethora of reasons why Australian governments can not be trusted to deal with the fossil fuel lobby

The past week has seen a virtual avalanche of stories about how the fossil fuel lobby has bought (in some cases quite literally) both Labor and LNP governments across Australia. Believing that either of the two major parties can deal with global warming alone is like believing fairies at the bottom of the garden will deal with global warming.

First up, some very dishonourable mentions for the federal Minister for (Destroying) the Environment, Tony Bourke. Not letting a little thing like outright lies concerning environmental offsets get in his way, the Minister for Destruction has approved the Maules Creek and Boggabri coal mines:

"These decisions represent a disgraceful failure of government policy on mining and gas development,” Nature Conservation Council of NSW Chief Executive Officer Pepe Clarke said.

"These mines will carve the heart out of Leard Forest, destroying almost 3,500 hectares of woodland in the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion, a nationally-listed biodiversity hotspot.

"This decision sounds the death knell for this extraordinary area, and will leave a permanent scar on the landscape.

“These decisions seriously damage Minister Burke's credibility as an effective environmental regulator.

"These are simply the latest in a series of destructive mining and gas proposals waved through by the Minister in recent months.

"It is especially troubling that the Maules Creek mine appears to have been approved without detailed offset requirements, despite serious concerns about the adequacy and accuracy of the company's offsets proposal."

“It is unconscionable that a Federal Environment Minister has permitted these important public lands to be destroyed for short-term profit.

“Our state forests should be managed in perpetuity for the benefit of the people of New South Wales.”

This comes in the wake of the Minister ignoring the Australian Heritage Council's recommendation to protect Tasmania's Tarkine wilderness and protecting it from strip mining. Even the former senior Labor figure Carmen Lawrence said 'she deeply regretted Environment Minister Tony Burke's decision to rule out natural heritage listing for Tasmania's Tarkine wilderness': 

Dr Lawrence, a former ALP federal president and chairman of the Australian Heritage Council, said Mr Burke showed a fundamental misunderstanding about an already weak heritage act. 

'To read [it] as prohibiting development is simply wrong,'' Dr Lawrence said on Friday. ''I'm very disappointed, and I'm sure I speak for other members of the council.'' 

Mr Burke overruled the AHC's recommendation to add to the National Heritage List about 447,000 hectares of rainforest, moorland and remote coastal hinterland in the island's north-west on natural heritage grounds...

Instead, only the Tarkine's two-kilometre coastline will be protected in recognition of an ancient Aboriginal presence in rock carvings and middens.

Remember, this is the same Minister who has no problem with the planned doubling of coal exports from Australia, including establishing a whole series of new or expanded coal ports along the length of the great Barrier Reef. Dredging of Gladstone harbour has literally destroyed the entire commercial fishing industry run out of Gladstone because of mysterious red lesions on caught seafood.

Thankfully, the Queensland Department of Environment (under both the previous Labor government and current conservative LNP government) confirms that stirring up heavy metals etc by dredging is not the cause of this unprecedented disaster. Phew, that's a relief!

Remember, these are the same Labor and LNP governments who both approve of doubling coal exports and open slather coal seam gas extraction. 

Speaking of CSG tracking, the previous Labor government pressured its own public servants to ram through approvals of major Queensland CSG projects:

Public servants at the two departments tasked with giving the official go-ahead to Queensland's new coal seam gas industry were blindsided by Bligh government demands that two of the gigantic projects be approved within weeks of each other.

Documents obtained through a Courier-Mail investigation reveal that as the $18 billion Santos GLNG project was nearing its approval in May 2010, public servants were hit with the demands from the government to also tackle the $16 billion QGC project - and then the Origin-led APLNG proposal, approved in November of the same year. 

And just days before the QGC approval was granted, public servants were warning the directors of the government's assessment team that they still had not been given any detailed information on pipelines and the location of wells.

But wait, it gets worse!

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in New South Wales is in the process of uncovering almost endless allegations of how the huge sums of money involved in coal mining corrupted the former Labor NSW government via the Obeid saga:

Former NSW minister Ian Macdonald has told a corruption inquiry that it was simply "by chance" that a mining exploration licence was granted over land owned by the family of Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is probing whether Mr Macdonald, 63, rorted a coal mining tender process in the NSW Upper Hunter's Bylong Valley in 2008, and how Mr Obeid and his family may have profited from it.

The ICAC alleges Mr Macdonald gave the Obeids inside knowledge that allowed the family to profit, potentially by $100 million.

Let's face it, unless people like you drive the change to renewables, governments across Australia will happily drive us to environmental destruction regardless of which 'side' of politics is in power.

As Greens Senator Christine Milne neatly summed it up today "A vote for Labor or the Coalition is a vote for Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer, the mining lobby and accelerated global warming."