Jacinda sees herself as a climate warrior. Let’s face it… climate change is her generation’s ‘nuclear moment’, even though she does not seem to understand that there have been no nuclear explosions (Thank God) since 1945, other than tests, and they have mostly been condemned. The North Koreans continue with tests from time to time, but they are simply trying to send a message to the world that they might be able to… not that anyone, other than the poor unfortunates who live in Seoul, are particularly worried.
The truth about Jacinda, however, is that she is all talk. This will not come as a surprise to most of you. After all, she has talked big about Kiwibuild, the homeless, mental health and cancer drugs but all of these problems just seem to get bigger and bigger under this government.
That is because all Jacinda seems to be able to do is to talk about problems, rather than provide solutions.
She’s good at it. Remember Kiwibuild. Remember mental health. Remember her speech last year about how #metoo should become #wetoo and she has an alleged rapist in her own office. None of the #metoo supporters has said a word because it is okay if the left does it.
All she has done at the Pacific Forum is talk. She has done nothing to make New Zealand lead the way on climate change, but boy, she has talked us up big time.
Don’t get me wrong. I think we are wrecking our economy enough with the Zero Carbon Bill, and the Greens’ proposals to take us back to the Stone Age. But Jacinda is well aware that she will lose the next election badly if she really hammers agriculture, so she has mostly left it out of our emissions reductions scheme.
Agriculture is the backbone of our economy, as Jacinda knows only too well. Coal is the backbone of Australia’s economy. But what has she done? She has called for the Australians to reduce their economic activity around coal.
Demanding Australia abandon its coal production and exports for the good of the climate in the Pacific is akin to asking New Zealand to give up its love affair with sheep.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is naive if she believes such moves would be economically feasible or in the best interests of regional stability.
But it has only been possible because less than 20 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity comes from fossil fuels and its biggest source of emissions, agriculture, has been given a free pass.
THE AUSTRALIAN
Most New Zealand power comes from hydro, geothermal and, increasingly, wind.
In terms of historic performance, New Zealand just scraped through the first Kyoto round of emissions cuts and failed to sign up to a legally binding target for the second. New Zealand parted company with Europe and Australia and instead joined Japan, Canada and Russia in a non-binding commitment for 2020.
One thing I have learned from Jacinda is that she thinks it is okay to talk the talk but not to actually do anything. She knows perfectly well that agriculture is the backbone of our economy, and we are already having enough issues around that, with the fall of Fonterra in recent months. Also, we are showing some serious signs of an economic recession, and this government cannot pretend it has nothing to do with that although it will, of course.
For Jacinda to criticise Australia’s coal outputs while our biggest CO2 emissions come from agriculture is hypocrisy of the first order.
Australia’s ability to give huge swathes of money to the Pacific comes from their ability to export coal, among other things. Nobody seems to recognise that.
Neither Australia or New Zealand are exactly sinners on the global spectrum when it comes to CO2 emissions. Both countries pale into complete insignificance when it comes to China, who is also wooing the Pacific, with cheap loans and lots of cash.
This will end badly for the Pacific Islands, of course, who have dollar signs in their eyes, and cannot see that Australia is a much bigger friend to them than China will ever be.
In the meantime, the Pacific Island Forum has blamed Australia for their problems, which are mostly non-existent, and Jacinda, being a great neighbour, has put the ankle boot in at the same time.
I am truly ashamed of our pathetic #parttimepm.