energy and climate | scott ludlam

on an agreement

The 2010 election delivered up a ‘plague on both your houses’ outcome that is still kicking out the occasional aftershock. To a visitor from Europe there would be nothing particularly remarkable about the idea of a multi-hued Parliament in which political parties and independents are forced to sit down and negotiate on the passage of laws. That, after all, is what Parliaments were designed to do. But there’s something in the Australian political culture, from the press gallery to the opposition benches, that refuses to understand or assimilate the reality of a minority government.

1 April 2012

I rise to speak…

I rise to speak on the Mining Tax bills with mixed feelings. This comes partly from being a Western Australian Senator. Dealing with these bills has exposed the degree to which Canberra views my state as little more than a lucrative and ever expanding hole in the ground. I want to set one myth to rest at the outset: the idea that the support of the Greens for fair taxation of this industry means we are anti-mining. Of course we are no such thing – a big wind turbine, perhaps for many people the symbol of the transition that

19 March 2012

the mining tax: in pictures

Created on the eve of the mining tax debate in the Senate – in an effort to visualise the numbers behind the policy and express a certain frustration in the outcome. Created mainly in adobe after effects 5.5 with help from photoshop and a little bit of carrara 5. Music composed in logic audio. Script mainly by ebony bennett, with help from david paris, clare ozich and john hawkins. i’d like to be able to do more of this stuff.

18 March 2012

Our West Wing moment

So, I’ll admit it. I got just as carried away as everybody else on the occasion of United States President Barack Obama’s visit to Australia. I was looking forward to the chance to see him up close and to get a sense of the rhetorical power that first caught the attention of the world at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. In that regard, he didn’t disappoint. His speech to the Australian Parliament was beautifully crafted, holding 226 Australian parliamentarians and a packed public gallery spellbound. After the oration he worked the room with ease, flashing his smile and

23 November 2011

Perth light rail: getting on board

In November 2010, two seemingly unrelated events on opposite sides of the world set the stage for one of the most exciting developments to come to our city in many years.

18 February 2011

Hung Parliament an opportunity to turn our face to the sun

The historic and unusual election result of 2010 is an opportunity to hit the ‘reset’ button on the climate change debate and turn it in a more productive direction.

18 October 2010

Reviewed to death for a 10c piece

The Government has been strongly criticised this year for rolling out massive policy initiatives without properly thinking through the costing and institutional frameworks required to make them work. The $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) and the home insulation scheme are two examples of big picture budget items that proceeded at breakneck speed unhindered by the normal process of internal checks and balances. The tragic results are a matter of record in the case of home insulation; the jury is still on the fence with regards the NBN. But what happens when the reverse occurs – when a simple

29 May 2010

climate change by legislative attrition

And so we go into the first long night of the CPRS bill. The deal has been done, with enough Liberal Senators giving the Government the numbers to extend sitting hours late into tonight and all the way into next week if necessary.

25 November 2009

Failing the climate: senate speech on the CPRS

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (1.17 pm 24 November 2009) – I rise to add my remarks on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 [No. 2] and related bills with a sense of deja vu, because we were here a couple of months ago debating not just the same bill that we are now confronted with but, evidently, we are debating a bill that has been made substantially worse as a consequence of the horse-trading and deals that have been going on behind the scenes.I would like to acknowledge that we have been joined by a couple of school

24 November 2009