Ever since Julia Gillard squeaked into power after last year’s historic election, Labor’s mixed marriage with the Greens was bound to cause trouble. While it might have netted the Prime Minister a bigger house for a while, it was only a matter of time before the Greens’ progressive, cashed-up outlook on life clashed with her party’s working-class roots. And so it was hardly surprising to find Senator Bob Brown slip this week and attack the very source of so much historical Labor support. As we went to press, the Prime Minister had still failed to condemn her political partner’s diatribe against the coal industry. Australians are entitled to wonder who really is in charge in this relationship.
Not only was the coal industry responsible for the floods, the Greens leader said, it should foot the bill for recovery and reconstruction to atone for its sins. ‘We have to take note,’ he told Sky News, ‘that the reality is that fossil fuel burning, coal burning, is a primary cause of the increased, not just flooding, but droughts and bushfires that we’re seeing in this country and elsewhere.’ He added: ‘The coal industry, burning coal here in Australia or exporting it for burning overseas, is a major contributor to global warming, therefore to the catastrophic weather effects we’re seeing around the world. It should pay its due.’
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