climate change protest school strike kids students
(Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR CLIMATE

Norway has nominated founder of the School Strike for Climate movement Greta Thunberg for the Nobel peace prize ahead of today’s mass day of action.

The Guardian reports that Thunberg, who began solo protests in August last year, has been nominated by Norwegian Socialist MPs for launching a movement aimed at halting “wars, conflict and refugees” born from climate change. Her nomination comes as hundreds of thousands of young people will march across 1659 towns and cities in 105 countries today. For Australia, this will mean at least 56 separate strikes calling to stop the Adani-Carmichael mine, phase out existing mines, and transition to 100% renewables by 2030. 

The strike has been denounced by conservative politicians and News Corp publications — from The Australian’s ($) expose on the adult support that students are receiving, to The Daily Telegraph ($) quizzing anti-strike students on words misspelled at previous protests.

Read Crikey’s special climate change edition, Slow Burn.

CARBON PLAN CANNED

Newly released documents reveal that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian dropped sweeping Liberal government plans to decarbonise the state’s economy shortly after replacing former premier Mike Baird in January 2017.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, while serving under Baird throughout 2016, former environment minister Mark Speakman worked with the Climate Change Council to develop proposals for both a “value for emissions savings” and a five-year “strategic plan for the NSW Climate Change Fund”. News that Berejiklian shelved both these policies comes days after the CCC accused her of ignoring the body since taking office.

HOME AFFAIRS DOES IT AGAIN

Home Affairs is once again under fire for giving a closed tender contract to a high-risk company, this time awarding an $82 million services contract to a politically-connected Papua New Guinea company suspected of inflating invoices.

A day after Home Affairs admitted an internal audit would be necessary following the Paladin scandal ($), The Age reports that NKW Holdings won a closed tender for Manus Island detention despite being on its own bank’s “watchlist” for unpaid debts. The news follows The Guardian’s November investigation into the company’s connections to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s political party, People’s National Congress.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Will some responsible parent/teacher PLEASE step in and punish these children for wagging school??

Daisy Cousens

The News Corp commentator gives more evidence to her claim that conservatism truly is the “new punk rock”.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Winds of change leave climate denialists isolated

Mar 15, 2019

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“While hardcore denialists don’t shift their views and tend to explain away even record heat events — a Bureau of Meteorology conspiracy etc — ‘undecided’ people are swayed by extreme weather. This has been established in polling for a number of years: not merely does direct experience of extreme weather affect people’s views about the existence of anthropogenic climate change, non-aligned voters are likely to express concern about climate change in response to warm weather. “

A snapshot of News Corp’s loudest climate change denialists

Mar 15, 2019

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“News Corp is the home for climate denial in Australian media. With sceptics Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine, Terry McCrann and Tim Blair as columnists, and Graham Lloyd as The Australian’s environment editor, the parent company of Australia’s most-read and influential newspapers provides a regular megaphone to denialist theories.”

Fire and floods: the impacts of climate change in 2018

Mar 15, 2019

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“According to the Bureau of Meteorology, 2018 was the fourth warmest year since global records began in 1880. The global mean surface temperature was 0.66°C above 1961–1990 average figures. And, while the Earth itself has warmed 1.1°C since pre-industrial temperatures, climate variables such as the 2015-16 El Niño warming event meant that 2018 came in well behind 2016’s record of 0.85°C above ‘average’, as well as 2017 at 0.75°C and 2015 at 0.74°C.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

SA mining executive Bob Johnson has assets frozen amid long-running AFP investigation ($)

Australia’s annual carbon emissions reach record high

‘Serious underbelly’: Franchise industry accused of bullying, intimidation

NSW state election: ‘quietly confident’ Daley floats stadium options ($)

Wharfies vote to strike at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle terminals

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is ready for court battle with billionaire Harry Triguboff ($)

Tony Abbott’s Safeguard Mechanism barely nips BHP, Incitec Pivot ($)

Liberals plan to bankroll East West Link to save MPs ($)

‘Grubby tactics’: AHA accused of push polling in Greens seats

US prosecutors mount criminal probe of Facebook’s data-sharing deals

THE COMMENTARIAT

This is why we don’t leave justice in the hands of victims — Waleed Aly (The Age): “As County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd methodically went about sentencing George Pell this week, it occurred to me that he took a position very few have taken, at least in public. In this most polarised of public dramas, Chief Judge Kidd was a meticulously moderate character: a mix of just rage and compassion – not just for Pell’s victims, but for the convicted cardinal himself.”

A strong mining sector means a strong NSW, giving $2 billion a year in royalty taxes ($) — NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee (The Daily Telegraph): “The Greens have promised to end coal mining in 10 years, killing off more than 20,000 direct jobs and destroying NSW’s most valuable export industry. The Greens are also promising to attack our farmers while they’re dealing with drought across rural NSW, by taking away farmers’ ability to clear vegetation on their own land, and encouraging animal rights activists to invade NSW farms.”

The Canberra bubble — Jonno Revanche (Meanjin): “Despite coming from a horrifically stereotypical blue collar family, whom politics often affected in a real and immediate way, the jargon of parliament and journalism was never mine to interpret and speak. This was, assumedly, a language for those who had been born into money and familial connections, streamlined into political literacy, brought before future bosses and suitors at a young age, for those who had learned to be included into the conversation before they had even entered primary school.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

The Latest Headlines

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Sydney

  • Local Democracy Matters will launch a last-ditch appeal against the demolition of Allianz Stadium, which technically already began yesterday.

  • Day one of three-day multicultural festival Parramasala.

  • Independent and non-partisan organisation WomenVote will hold a launch event.

Canberra

  • An inquiry report is due to be tabled into Pauline Hanson’s allegedly racist proposed citizenship amendments, Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Commitments for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2018.

  • A public hearing will be held for a parliamentary inquiry into a counter-terrorism bill, which would introduce a temporary exclusion orders scheme to delay and manage the return of Australian citizens leaving conflict zones.

Brisbane

  • The Department of Housing and Public Works will host The Minister’s Award for Urban Design 2019.

Melbourne

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger will launch three-day fitness and sporting expo Arnold Sports Festival Australia.

  • Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas will speak at a CEDA forum on the state’s economic and political outlook ahead of the April 30 budget.

  • The Melbourne Press Club will announce the winners of the 2018 Quill Award winners.