‘We just need to get on with it, the time is now’: Australian renewables sector frustrated by political response to IPCC report

Tue 10 Aug 2021, ABC Australia Wide with Sinead Mangan

Episode program:

  • Yesterday the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its most significant report since 2014. It’s a climate update that lays out a stark reality regarding the state of the planet. The IPCC predict global temperature will increase 1.5 degrees by the 2030s.. if nothing is done immediately. In Australia that means longer hotter summers, more bushfires, flooding and coastal erosion. In response Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the solution did lay with a focus on technology not politics. John Grimes from the Smart Energy Council says the Federal Government needs to show leadership to help Australia achieve the potential of what he describes as a energy exporting superpower.
    Guest/Audio: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, John Grimes, CEO of the Smart Energy Council
  • Every five years, the census reveals all sorts about how the country is changing. Locals of Rupanyup in rural northwest Victoria are hoping it will confirm things are changing in their town for the better. Previous census findings have shown the town’s population is on the decline and locals are hoping measures to stabilise the town’s population are finally paying off.
    Guest/Audio: Local farmer David Matthews who is also a Director of the town’s community bank, Yarriambiack Shire Deputy Mayor Kylie Zanker, Tanya Clark, a farmer of nearby Minyip
  • Earlier this year, 51 workers from the Pacific Island absconded from the federal government’s seasonal worker program. Recently, the Australian Border Force raided the home of a couple who provide pastoral care to these workers. The officers seized mobile phones and computers belonging to the couple during the raid.Guest/Audio: Geoffrey and Jane Smith, Lawyer Stewart Levitt
  • There’s a major push from outback councils on Queensland’s border with New South Wales, for financial assistance for ongoing closures. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on measures to keep New South Wales locals jumping borders, they are starting to get desperate. On a road in the town of Hebel, a dirt partition is all that stands between both states, it’s become an issue of great concern for those living nearby.Guest/Audio: Publican Ned Deshon, Hebel Mayor Samantha O’Toole, Greg Hallam from the Local Government Association of Queensland
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