CAMERON MILNER: One Nation could capitalise on cost-of-living as Labor faces a reckoning over climate policy
CAMERON MILNER: Pauline Hanson has an opening to wedge both sides of politics on an issue many voters no longer want to pay more for.
The climate is ripe for One Nation to pivot from immigration to climate induced costs of living.
Voters are already feeling petrol pump pain and still waiting for Albanese’s $275 power price cut promised now two elections ago.
The recent round of climate catastrophising about global warming looked like just more Chicken Little to ramp up any interest in a major COP31 conference in Turkey to be held in November.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.One Nation will use the upcoming global climate talkfest to pivot to domestic cost of living.
Even “Houso kid” Albo is apparently sacrificing some of his podcast appearance time to travel to Antalya as if his presence alone will change the path of man-made climate change.
With friends like Albo fronting calls for climate action the movement is in deep trouble. His presence will drive even greater scepticism amongst voters.
This the bloke who doesn’t swing a club, isn’t a male chauvinist pig and doesn’t choose personal luxury over time at Garma.
Anthony “Wasn’t Me” Albanese’s struggle with the truth is now on par with his own level of self delusion. He is a drag on Labor’s and the environment movement’s credibility across the board.
Everyday Aussies are being crushed by the cost of living and couldn’t give two shits any longer about whether it’s 1.5 degrees or 2.0 if their power bills are double under Albo and fuelling up costs more than ever.
It’s in this environment that One Nation can thrive as Labor is trapped in green tape bureaucracy and the Coalition fret they’ll look like climate Visigoths if they dare call out the climate hypocrisy we are all about to be subjected to between now and November 20.
Matt Canavan will be a lone voice in the Coalition speaking truth to power and railing against the global climate industry.
This leaves the field open for One Nation to drive a Mack truck through the middle ground. Migration will continue to be core business, but there’s only so many times an ever deeper cut gets you a front page lead.
The cost of climate change action becomes a great double wedge to prosecute cost of living.
One Nation will splinter further votes from hard working Labor voters as Albanese looks to be hugging the Greens, while once again jamming the Liberals with outer-metro commuters and small businesses as the Coalition looks like it’s siding with post-materialists in leafy suburbs.
It will also allow Barnaby Joyce much more comfortable economic ground to attack Labor than being a constant apologist for crackpot Malcolm Roberts podcasts or “traitor” cartoons. Joyce was always an effective voice for the conservative’s attack on carbon pricing and climate induced cost-of-living increases.
Labor will need the very best of measured responses from Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers to stop a further erosion in the Labor primary. Albanese simply isn’t trusted by voters any longer and antagonises voters drawn to and so often now just pushed to One Nation by his presence.
Australia now produces record amounts of renewable energy. We have replaced ageing and beyond end of life inefficient coal fired power stations, yet power bills are higher than ever.
With storage such as pumped hydro and battery farms we can benefit from producing through the day to provide well into our late afternoons and evening peaks, but we aren’t there yet.
The enthusiasm of voters to suffer even more pain to save the planet is now at zero. People want cheaper power, badly, but they’ve failed to get that under Albanese.
COP31 will be full of pronouncements about crops failing, houses made unlivable and famine across Africa all while Aussies will be looking at the grocery bill, the next interest rate rise and the price of fuel.
Thinking about the plight of the world is a luxury so many Australians can now ill afford.
Aussies will also be subjected to global virtue signalling by the Chinese on how much they are doing with renewables when the hard truth is they are adding an entire United Kingdom’s coal fired capacity to their grid each and every year.
The challenge for Labor is voters are so far from Kevin Rudd’s “greatest moral challenge of our generation” moment.
Australia is clearly suffering from climate change, but the will to support collective action even with personal sacrifice simply isn’t there any longer.
One Nation by attacking the global gravy train of climate doomsayers with yet another way to call for a carbon tax can open up a whole new political front back here in Australia.
Labor’s vulnerability will be buying into the outcomes of COP31 while the two largest economies in the world either refuse to sign like the USA or get a leave pass like China.
Australians are at breaking point financially under Albanese and will have zero tolerance for increasing costs further to pay a global climate dividend.
It’s this electoral climate One Nation will prosper in. It won’t have the anti-migrant blow back of calling for a “monoculture”, instead it will move to own the middle ground against climate induced cost of living pressures.
The only question now is whether the political weather vane and Liberal leadership aspirant, Andrew Hastie, beats Hanson to the microphone on carbon taxes and climate costs.
Labor is wedded to COP31 being the lead negotiator even as the domestic politics is shifting dramatically away.
The times more than ever suit One Nation as they pivot from visa overstayers to globalists pushing for higher taxes and an even greater cost of living for everyday Aussies.
