Threadbare Liberal climate ideology

It’s disappointing that the first public statement on climate change by the Liberal’s weatherman candidate for Newcastle, Martin Babakhan, takes refuge in the now threadbare Liberal ideology that only the market can provide the solution to the climate crisis [“The market will turn us green”, Herald, 30/1].

The market certainly has a role to play, but it is no substitute for the kind of political leadership that Australia needs - and that John Howard’s and Mr Babakhan’s political party has failed to provide – to deal with the climate crisis.

Since forming in the early 1990s, The Greens have pushed for political recognition of this major policy challenge, and for the kind of political leadership needed to fund serious research and development of renewable energy and to reduce energy consumption – which the market alone has failed to do.

During this period, Mr Babakhan’s party – blinded by its ideological commitment to the marketplace and funded by the vested interests who pocketed the dividends from this commitment – simply ignored the seriousness of the emerging climate crisis, losing valuable time and making Australia an international environmental pariah in the process.

More recently, after being forced to confront the reality of the climate crisis in the face of overwhelming scientific and experiential evidence and mounting public pressure, the Liberal Party, chanting its market mantra, has been able to come up with nothing more than the hoary old chestnut of nuclear power.

Instead of trying to divert voters’ attention from the failure of his party to deal with climate change, Mr Babakhan would do voters and the Liberal Party a greater service by telling them which way the wind is really blowing on this key issue.