Australia
Related: About this forum'It's a tragedy,' Clive Hamilton says of Turnbull's climate transformation
Not only in the U.S., people - it's bad when the head of the EPA comes out with a lot of nonsense on climate change, but he's not alone. Malcolm Turnbull - welcomed by the Centre Left when he took over as PM from climate-denier Tony Abbott - has also proved to be a turncoat, trying to pretend that he never, ever really did believe in climate change.
Now Clive Hamilton, appointed as head of the Climate Change Authority in 2012, has quite the post and made his views on Turnbull's change of heart publicly known:
'But last month, Hamilton quit the CCA after hearing a chorus of government ministers, led by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, touting the oxymoron of clean coal.
'Now Hamilton has spelled out his antipathy towards Turnbull a politician who only six years ago was a climate change hawk, who advocated for a massive shift to renewable energy, and who was utterly sceptical of clean coal.
"Its a tragedy to watch a man like Malcolm Turnbull to shrink into the kind of shell of a person that he has become. I dont understand why a man like that does not say look, I have some fundamental principles and I might lose the leadership but at least I will be able to look at myself in the mirror for the rest of my life.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2017/mar/10/its-a-tragedy-says-clive-hamilton-of-turnbulls-climate-transformation
We all know that politicians of every stripe are indebted to business people of one sort or another and shape their policies accordingly, but I always wonder: "How do you look your grandchildren in the face, knowing what you're setting up for them?"
SunSeeker
(53,928 posts)Matilda
(6,384 posts)They worship the same gods - money and power.
SunSeeker
(53,928 posts)I assume they're not the same thing as liberals or progressives in the US...
Matilda
(6,384 posts)When founded by Robert Menzies back in 1945, they were a very different party - definitely not socialists, but with a true liberal agenda. It was John Howard who forced them more to the Right by getting rid of what he called "wets" in the Party.
And it was Tony Abbott who pursued a very hard-line agenda, to the point of complete nuttiness.
And that's where they remain today, firmly in the grip of right-wing idealogues, not far removed from the Tea Party.