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By most accounts, the first budget of the Abbott government was the least popular and most extreme in forty years, and was handed down during an almost unprecedented May heatwave of ten consecutive days above 20 degrees.
The pantomime of the federal budget took place in Australia last Tuesday, auspiciously on the 13th of May. As a piece of political theatre, the budget is generally viewed as one of the most important set pieces of the year by political and media elites. The accepted wisdom is that the budget is an opportunity for the government to set the agenda for the remainder of the year. If this is true, then the Abbott government has sent a strong message that its agenda is resolutely regressive for almost every policy area.
On the climate and environment front, it is genuinely difficult to narrow down the most extreme elements of this deeply and widely disliked budget.
Firstly, the fact is that this is a deeply unpopular budget, and it has been presented to the Australian people by a government that is neither liked nor trusted.
To get an idea of just how unpopular this budget is, you could look at opinion polls, such as the recent Newspoll which shows only 5 percent of respondents saying they would be better off. Snap protests against the budget were also held, events which were well covered by The Guardian.
Or you could watch this video of what happened when people on the street get told about the "best budget ever".
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video.
Secondly, the scale of the betrayal in this budget is breathtaking.
In addition to social policy attacks against Australia's most vulnerable people, including $80 billion in cuts to health and education, and the regressive proposal to introduce a $7 fee to see a doctor, the budget destroys the Abbott government's final claims to take climate change seriously.
There are scores of programs and policies that have been trashed by Tony Abbott and his government.
A particularly egregious cut is the abolition of ARENA, the renewable energy agency. This action is a loud declaration that the Abbott government is addicted to carbon-intensive energy.
Tied to this, although not a budget initiative, is the review of the previously bi-partisan Renewable Energy Target, with climate denier Dick Warburton appointed as review head. Before the election, there were clear statements made that an Abbott government would continue to support the renewable energy target. Greg Hunt, the environment minister, said before the election that the Coalition "does agree on the renewable energy target" and "support the RET, the 20 per cent".
The cut to ARENA and the review of Australia's renewable energy target is a breathtaking assault on the $18 billion renewable energy sector, and introduces substantial elements of sovereign risk for companies and people considering investing in this area in Australia. Before last year's election, the Coalition repeatedly promised to keep ARENA. In opposition, the Coalition supported ARENA.
The Clean Energy Council has also expressed major concerns, a rare event for a body that has to keep governments on side. In a statement, the CEC deputy CEO said: "A global race for renewable energy is on, and the removal of ARENA will see potential Australian and international investors now look to countries with much stronger support for renewable energy innovation, meaning we may well miss out on billions of dollars of investment and highly-skilled jobs."
(The Coalition had previously promised to remove funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, an ideologically motivated decision based on Abbott's view that it was "socialism masquerading as environmentalism".)
Other renewable and clean energy programs have also been scrapped, such as the One Million Solar Roofs program, research into carbon capture and storage technology, the Clean Technology Program, the Cleaner Fuels grant scheme, and more.
There is a real risk that the result of the RET review will see the end of the renewable energy target, once a bi-partisan policy. Removing or reducing the renewable energy target, currently 20 percent by 2020, would effectively lock Australia to a carbon-intensive, fossil fuel addicted future.
Climate change remains a serious and present threat to Australia's society and economy. Major global economic forces are moving to clean energy and low carbon technologies. China for example is planning to triple its solar capacity by 2017, and other major economies including US states and nations in the EU are heading in that direction also.
To do nothing about climate change, as the Australian government now appears committed to, is immoral and amounts to abandoning both current and future generations. Australia's social compact has been built around the government ensuring safety, prosperity and freedom; the cuts to Australia's social safety-net (in the form of $80 billion in cuts to health and education) is doubly cruel when you consider that it is the most vulnerable who are impacted by the effects of global warming. Climate change is a direct threat to Australia's future prosperity and safety.
The trashing of Australia's renewable energy sector removes the last pretense that this government would take climate change seriously. No one who accepts the dangers of global warming would destroy their nation's renewable energy capacity, or the fossil fuel industry's incentives to develop carbon capture technology. (The bitter pill is that the Abbott government plans to keep billions of dollars worth of corporate fossil fuel subsidies with the diesel rebate, while increasing the excise for individual motorists.)
There are many other instances in the budget – too many to name – that should leave the Australian public, and the global community, under no doubt that the government is run by climate deniers.
It is clear now that the carbon price introduced by the former Labor government must be ferociously defended, and the government's discredited "direct action" policy opposed. As an economic reform, the combination of the trading scheme and a steadily reducing cap on emissions is essential to both reduce Australia's carbon emissions, and to ensure Australia remains a constructive player in global efforts.
It remains to be seen how the new Senate, where coal magnate Clive Palmer holds the balance of power, will act, but it is clear that both Labor and the Greens will block the repeal of the carbon price under the current senate. To its credit, Labor has remained firm in its support for an emissions trading scheme with a cap.
Australia sweltered through one of the hottest summers on record, and the winter of 2014 is preparing to match or break heat records. For people who do take global warming seriously, efforts to halt the Australian government's reckless agenda now rests on the Senate.
The unseasonably hot May demonstrates yet again the pressing moral urgency of climate action; the assault on the renewable energy sector is yet another symptom of the moral failures of Abbott's government.
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