Such is the title for this fairly brutal assessment of the green left within the context of the Garnaut report , from the editorial desk of The Australian:
In his maiden speech a fortnight ago, WA Greens senator Scott Ludlam complained that the “fossil economy knows only how to grow”. Mr Ludlam, whose world view was shaped growing up “in the back of a van that was somewhere different every day” told parliament: “When our economy fails to grow, we call it a recession; but an entity that knows only blind growth we call a cancer.” The fossil growth economy, he said, gave “pulp mills that erase ecosystems while showering its neighbours with toxic emissions … the tragic industrial vandalism of the Ice Age heritage on the Burrup Peninsula … burnout, family breakdown and fly-in, fly-out workforces.” Would stagnation, unemployment and poverty be preferable?
The Greens clearly place people second and their environmental agenda first in their political agenda. It is a striking admission that a carbon emissions scheme would damage the economy, otherwise why complain and make a case against economic growth as the Greens do? From Terry McCran in the Herald Sun with his article, “Now, should we destroy the economy?”:
There is no way even the Rudd Government is going to embrace a policy to destroy the economy, in the wake of this week’s disaster on Wall St and the Hill – the US House of Representatives.
What, Rudd is going to get up and announce the wrecking of the economy starts now: barely 60 weeks away on January 1 2010? Before the next election?
There is no way that China and the US are going to agree to slug their economies in recession with punitive policies to send them in even deeper.
If the Prime Minister persists with his ambition for a global agreement to reduce emission, he won’t be preaching to the converted but an audience which will make the one he addressed in New York last week look like the MCG last Saturday.
An unhappy audience. In fact responses to the Garnaut report have been fairly critical, except of course for Paul Kelly’s some what muted response – hedging his bets both ways no doubt to try and please the Greens and Rudd.