Ian, Peter and John just don’t get it

Tracee Hutchinson, The Age. May 12, 2007

THEY don’t get it. Climate change, that is. They just don’t get it. Everyone else does. Even the people who stand to gain the most out of this week’s buy-your-vote speech from the federal Treasurer. They know they’re being bought. They’ll take the money, mind you, but they know these blokes don’t get it.

Ian and Peter and John. They don’t get it. They think it’s politics. They still haven’t worked out that it’s the economy. Stupid.

You know they don’t get it when they think that 0.01 per cent of the GDP is addressing the problem. You know they don’t get it when allocating $740 million for the environment is supposed to measure up against the $22 billion they’ve earmarked for defence.

You know they don’t get it when they haven’t worked out that we won’t have much left to defend if we don’t do something more decisive. NOW.

You know they don’t get it when a 76-year-old media mogul makes them look like dinosaurs. You know they don’t get it when we find out that News Limited – not our Parliament House building – will be carbon neutral by 2010.

Rupert gets it. Rupert, Al and Arnie. They all get it.

You know Arnie. He’s the pin-up boy for The (carbon-neutral) Crusades. He’s the green-caped Terminator eradicating Hummers from the Californian freeway system. A Republican. Who would have thought?

And what about Al? He who should have been the 43rd president of the United States, instead of that bloke from Texas. Imagine that. Someone with real conviction about the health of the planet could actually have been leading the free world. But perhaps it’s been a blessing. Because Al’s film has made a whole lot of other people get it.

But not Peter and John and Ian. They don’t get it. That’s why the resources sector was hooting so wildly about this week’s tax breaks that will encourage more investment and the untouched $1.2 billion diesel fuel rebates it receives.

You know they don’t get it when every dollar spent on climate change is matched 12-fold in payments or tax incentives that will assist the production or consumption of fossil fuels.

You know they don’t get it when they don’t announce a carbon tax or an emissions target, despite big business (resources sector excluded) starting to really make some noise about needing one.

You know they don’t get it when only 15,000 of the country’s 7.5 million households will actually have access to the $150 million set aside for solar panel rebates.

You know they don’t get it when they throw $200 million at reducing deforestation in Indonesia when Tasmania is being annihilated by forestry practices.

You know they don’t get it when they choose not to spend that $200 million turning forestry workers into tourist operators so the Styx and East Gippsland forests can keep breathing for us.

You know they don’t get it when they allocate more in tax concessions for beer and wine than they’re spending on climate change initiatives.

You know they don’t get it when there are no Backyard Blitz-style profiles on the Treasurer’s grey water system or the Resources Minister’s Toowoomba solar-powered house.

You know they don’t get it when the PM isn’t demonstrating his finesse with low-wattage light bulbs.

You know they don’t get it because otherwise they’d be crowing about leading by example. But Peter and John and Ian aren’t crowing about their personal greenhouse handiwork because there’s nothing to crow about. They don’t get it.

They don’t get it and now they’re being left behind. They are Yesterday’s Men.

Because lots of us have caught on. Rupert, Arnie and Al aren’t alone. Little Kevvie is playing catch-up to Bob, big Pete and Dr Tim.

Dr Tim’s been saying the same thing for so long he’s gone blue in the face. Now he’s started musing out aloud about what to do with his Australian of the Year medallion.

Because he gets it.

Tracee Hutchison is a Melbourne writer and broadcaster.