Skye
Laris
If you needed another reason not to vote Liberal this is it.
On Thursday it was the AGL and
former GetUp activist, Climate Institute and Labor operative, Skye
Laris. Today, again it’s AGL in the frame with a graduate from Al Gore’s
climate change leadership program Tony Chappel who is head of AGL’s
government and community relations.
We can t say we weren’t warned. Note this from 6 years ago “..While Mr Chappel said in a 2011 Weekend Australian Magazine profile that he wanted to “change the system from within..”
If you thought the Gramsci and
Frankfurt School tactic of changing the system from within, (education
at all levels, bureaucracy, churches the ABC and the arts, to name a
few was dead, it’s very much alive and well with a pulse in the
corporate world.
These two from the last couple of days GetUp/Labor/Green left operative embedded at AGL and Gore climate graduate and ‘agent of change’ now AGL’s point man are a case studies.
Also worthy of note is his
political affiliation. Not Green or Labor but Liberal. A former
President of the Young Liberals no less:
Cut and Paste and full column below—-
“…The
head of government relations with energy giant AGL is a graduate of Al
Gore’s climate-change leadership program whose move to the corporate
world last year follows a quest to “change the system from within—–Tony
Chappel is part of AGL’s executive team responsible for engaging with
federal and state governments and local communities as the nation’s
largest coal-fired power producer. He is helping AGL managing director
Andy Vesey’s policy for an “orderly transition” out of coal to renewable
energy as the company encounters protests that its plans to shut down
the Liddell power station in the NSW Hunter Valley could threaten power
supplies. Mr Chappel, who joined AGL as head of government and community
relations in February last year, has been a chief of staff to NSW
Liberal minister Rob Stokes, and linked to his party’s moderate faction.
He is a former president of the Young Liberals in NSW and was once
touted as a candidate in the Sydney state seats of Davidson or
Ku-ring-gai.
He
joined former US vice-president Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and
graduated from its leadership program. Climate leaders work to educate
communities about “the reality of climate change and promote both local
and global solutions”.
The
Gore project’s mission is “to educate the public about the harmful
effects of climate change and to work toward solutions at a grassroots
level worldwide”.
Mr
Chappel scored a British Council Chevening scholarship to Imperial
College London in 2009, where he studied for a masters degree in energy
policy.
While
in Britain, he worked as a researcher at the University of Oxford, on
projects mapping sustainable development pathways for Rwanda and on
applied research with French development agency AFD about the use of
economic tools to address environmental issues.
Critics
of Mr Chappel within the NSW Liberal right faction say he is in the
“vanguard” of climate-change activists who believe they can influence
corporate policies by working in executive positions for change.
READ ON….
“…The
head of government relations with energy giant AGL is a graduate of Al
Gore’s climate-change leadership program whose move to the corporate
world last year follows a quest to “change the system from within”.
Tony
Chappel is part of AGL’s executive team responsible for engaging with
federal and state governments and local communities as the nation’s
largest coal-fired power producer.
He is
helping AGL managing director Andy Vesey’s policy for an “orderly
transition” out of coal to renewable energy as the company encounters
protests that its plans to shut down the Liddell power station in the
NSW Hunter Valley could threaten power supplies.
Mr
Chappel, who joined AGL as head of government and community relations in
February last year, has been a chief of staff to NSW Liberal minister
Rob Stokes, and linked to his party’s moderate faction. He is a former
president of the Young Liberals in NSW and was once touted as a
candidate in the Sydney state seats of Davidson or Ku-ring-gai.
Mr
Chappel told The Australian in 2011 that he had “started to feel quite
disconnected” from some policy positions taken by the federal Liberal
Party almost a decade earlier, especially on climate change. “I got
quite uncomfortable, especially since their position ignored the
science,” he said.
He
joined former US vice-president Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and
graduated from its leadership program. Climate leaders work to educate
communities about “the reality of climate change and promote both local
and global solutions”.
The
Gore project’s mission is “to educate the public about the harmful
effects of climate change and to work toward solutions at a grassroots
level worldwide”.
Mr
Chappel scored a British Council Chevening scholarship to Imperial
College London in 2009, where he studied for a masters degree in energy
policy.
While
in Britain, he worked as a researcher at the University of Oxford, on
projects mapping sustainable development pathways for Rwanda and on
applied research with French development agency AFD about the use of
economic tools to address environmental issues.
Critics
of Mr Chappel within the NSW Liberal right faction say he is in the
“vanguard” of climate-change activists who believe they can influence
corporate policies by working in executive positions for change.
The
Australian reported yesterday that former GetUp! campaigns director and
Labor staffer Skye Laris, known for her views on climate change, is now
senior manager, public advocacy, at AGL. A spokesman for AGL said Ms
Laris was “employed to work on public engagement and does not have a
direct role in policy development”.
While
Mr Chappel said in a 2011 Weekend Australian Magazine profile that he
wanted to “change the system from within”, those close to him dismiss
any suggestion he is an activist and point to his years as a lawyer for
coal interests, notably Whitehaven Coal.
After
leaving Whitehaven in November 2012, Mr Chappel re-entered the
political fray, working for more than three years as chief of staff for
Mr Stokes. In March this year, while with AGL, he was a keynote speaker
at a global warming forum in Sydney called “Conservatives for
Conservation”.
The
Australian asked Mr Chappel how he came to AGL, and whether the past
description of wanting to “change the system from within” on climate
change was a fair one.
He
said: “I developed my insights on energy from prior roles in finance and
the mining sector. My advocacy at AGL is for the policy architecture to
deliver an orderly transition — as opposed to the disorderly transition
we are currently living through.” Gore climate graduate and ‘agent of change’ now AGL’s point man are a case study.