A massive climate change poll has shown that heaps of people in every federal seat in Australia want to see some real fkn climate action, including ditching the government’s current plan for a gas-led recovery and going for renewable energy instead, and it’s bloody huge news.
However, Senator Penny Wong has a message for all of us wanting to fight climate change: these changes won’t happen unless we change who’s in our government, too.
The survey of 15,000 Australians, which is now the biggest poll ever run on climate change and politics in Australia, was conducted by YouGov and commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation, which found that climate action is important to 67% of voters.
The poll found that nationally, 71% of voters do not see coal and gas as part of Australia’s future energy mix, with 61% of voters supporting action to cut Australia’s greenhouse emissions by at least half by 2030, and a majority in every seat rejecting plans to build new gas and coal-fired power plants.
For our own Prime Minister/Coal Groupie Scott Morrison‘s electorate of Cook, 25% of voters said climate change would be the most important issue at the next election on top of 41% of voters who rated it as part of their top three most important issues.
And if that wasn’t enough to make your heart sing, in Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England, up to 55% of voters want more action and reckon coal and gas-fired power stations should not be part of Australia’s future energy supply.
For a climate anxiety riddled binch like me, this is some astounding news. Knowing that so many people genuinely care about climate action and want to change our increasingly bleak future is reassuring, because it makes me feel like maybe we have a shot at fixing things – or at least, not making them worse.
But, in an interview with ABC News about this exact poll, Senator Penny Wong reminded us of a crucial detail: we won’t have a change in our climate policies without a change in our government, too.
YOUR’E NOT WRONG:
Senator Penny Wong about Labor’s medium term emissions reduction target, “The only way we’re going to get strong action on climate change is if we change the government. Full stop.”pic.twitter.com/GFv8Z8Q1Po
— LORD ♛ Tom Wynn THE WOKE BLOKE ⚫️ (@mister_wynn) August 29, 2021
“The reality is, with Barnaby Joyce as the Deputy Prime Minister — remember, the bloke who has campaigned over the last 20 years, or 15 years, against action on climate change — this government, this coalition government, lead by Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce, will never act on climate [change],” Wong said.
“And what that poll shows is what we already know: that the community want action, the business community want action, the only people that don’t are Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce. You have to change the government if you want action on climate change.”
Now, while those words ring true, she didn’t answer any questions on what climate action policies and alternatives the Labor Party will promise in the next election.
Either way though, I think there’s something here we can pretty much all agree on: Scott Morrison’s government isn’t going to save us from climate change. That’s something we’ll have to demand with our votes at the next election.
