By Jo Nova
The EU Free Trade agreement would Weaponize the Paris Agreement
The Labor Party want to sign a deal with the EU which means that future Australian governments won’t be able to drop the Paris Agreement without being bludgeoned in trade by the EU. If we revise our Net Zero goals downwards or delay them the EU can cut access for our farmers to their markets. And the EU will be able to say they are not bullying us, or interfering with our sovereign rights, they are just enforcing a trade agreement we signed up for.
In the Labor Governments own words:
For the first time in a free trade agreement, Australia (and the EU) has made a binding commitment to implement obligations under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
— Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Effectively Australian farmers or exporters to the EU will be held hostage by the EU to make sure we meet our Paris targets, even if we vote against Net Zero commitments. The deal has meaningless words like “Australia maintains the right to regulate in pursuit of its own public policy objectives” but if we actually do that, there will be a price.
Once farmers have adapted to the new EU market, and supply lines are established to advertise, package, transport and distribute the goods, there will be real pain if those markets are abruptly cut off because Australia didn’t meet it’s absurd impossible Net Zero targets.
This suits the Labor Party, they can sell out the regions without worrying about a voter backlash from country folk who don’t vote Labor much anyway. The Labor inner-city voters will be happy because they can buy their French cheese and European electric cars slightly cheaper, along with their discounted Dutch ham. But the farmers and the Coalition will be caught in a no win situation where they will pay if they try to get rid of the Paris agreement.
This is a pincer move that’s intricate and clever in the same way Ebola is
Labor hid its plans to raise our Paris Agreement commitment from the voters in the last election, only to, by golly, suddenly raise our commitment from a 42% to a 62 – 70% reduction a few months later. Lies and deception is the only way to “pass” a climate tax isn’t it? If Labor had told Australians what it was going to do, would it have still won?
And if this Trade Agreement goes through, the farmers won’t have much choice. They could choose not to sell to the EU to stop themselves from being held hostage. But the trade deal means new meat and dairy products from the EU will be arriving to take some of the Australian market away, so they will be, de facto, forced to find some new market.
Labor have thrown the regions under the bus in order to trap the Coalition into keeping the Paris Agreement, and the Paris Agreement is a ratchet that can only move in one direction. Commitments can only increase…
The good news is that the Coalition appear to be aware of this now and have vowed to oppose it:
EU free-trade deal in danger amid Coalition warnings it ‘locks in climate agenda’
The Coalition says it could oppose the Albanese government’s $10bn-a-year free-trade agreement with the EU, arguing it would lock future governments into Labor’s “partisan climate agenda” by making Australia’s emissions reduction pledges legally binding.
The position means the government could have to rely on the Greens – which has opposed recent free-trade deals – to ratify the agreement that took nearly eight years to conclude.
The bad news is that only last week the Opposition was saying they won’t drop the Paris Agreement because it won’t change anything they do, and “it’s just a piece of paper”. That didn’t age well. Didn’t they see this coming?
The true danger of Paris framework is coming into focus
It is the legal bomb that can be weaponized through other domestic legislation. If Labor can do a deal with the Greens to sign this, Australia effectively becomes a quasi satellite state of the EU at least on climate and energy. And the new ludicrous targets that Labor snuck in last September become an excuse for the EU to punish any particular industry in Australia that exports to the EU. And we can be sure the EU will pick the most politically leveraged industry to target. It’s not like they will block the Great Fashion Houses of Warringah, because the Teal politicians will squeal for free.
This is the elegance of the trap: the voters least enthusiastic about Labor’s climate agenda become the collateral for enforcing it. If a future government tries to loosen the Paris ratchet, it is not the inner-city teal voter who gets threatened with lost market access; it is the farmer, processor and regional exporter.
The irony is, it was a lousy inept trade deal for farmers anyhow
The incompetence of this offering made it easier for the Opposition to turn it down.
EU free trade more about climate policy than free markets
Ted O’Brien, The Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, in The Australian:
For the first time, Australia faces legally binding climate commitments in an FTA, including enforceable obligations and the prospect of sanctions. Yet the Albanese government has said remarkably little about this. Instead, debate has centred on agriculture, where Australia was out-negotiated by Europe – securing access for just an extra 30,600 tonnes of beef while Canada won 50,000 tonnes, and forcing Australian cheese producers to compete against government-subsidised European imports at home.
Imagine if Albanese had managed to arrange an EU deal which seemed appealing?
His incompetence is the best thing he’s got going for him.
Ocean Monster Image by Alana Jordan from Pixabay
Maze Image by gugacurado from Pixabay
*** I’ll be speaking at 3pm Saturday afternoon near Fremantle, Mt Hawthorn (Sorry for screwing that up!) in WA.
I’ll have more details tomorrow.
h/t to Dennis and Ms Smith
The climate crap will unravel in the EU in the next few years.
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Why are we worried about the EU anything?
Don’t do ANY business with them. Who cares?
Australia is a long way from Europe.
Our future is in Asia and how we negotaitae by lateral agreements.
If academia and the political class wants to visit the EU give them a one way ticket.
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I do believe you are on the right track. Trade is , or should be, two way. We do have far more to gain by closer ties to Asian countries with the exception of China. We do not have to or need to buy Audis when we can buy excellent Japanese cars or those from South Korea. Maybe a ban on European imports might upset the Warringah types but who cares.
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Lawrie
The “Warringah types” are the core of the modern Labor Party. So much more sophisticated than the working class!
//Sarc// I think/hope.
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As the Saracens consolidate their settlement of Western Europe, the EU will fall soon anyway. We should be looking for other markets and also restoring our relationship with the United States, very damaged by the present Government.
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Yeah, I really don’t get what Australia has in common with the EU. They have lot in common with Great Britain (particularly England and Scotland), but almost nothing in common with the EU countries on the continent.
They should be looking to partner up with their dynamic growing neighbors along the Pacific Rim and Southeast Asia, not committing to do business with a bunch of slowly dying old-world economies in Europe. Those neighbors are going to continue to grow and become economic powerhouses as the 21st century progresses, while Europe stagnates and declines. Better to stick with the rising tide in your own back yard than jump on a leaky ship halfway around the world.
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True, I’d dump Europe in a heartbeat, but don’t forget we have deep roots over there with Greece, Italy and Turkey supplying a lot of Australians after WW2. They seemed to have improved the country more than those who followed them, but there’s still time to see.
Yes, India, China and SE Asia will be where the growth is. If only we could get out of every trade agreement, ban Govt from interfering and let businessmen buy and sell to other businessmen. Its just so typical, they make trade damm near impossible, then sign an agreement and say “Look what we did for you”, instead of staying right out of it to start with!
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Hi KP,
I don’t know why they call it a free trade agreement either
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The EU is entitled to make a Free Trade Agreement conditional on a binding commitment to implement obligations under the Paris Agreement. Australia doesn’t have to sign the FTA. The EU is well aware of the effects of climate change; record May temperatures at the moment. AMOC is weakening, which is going to result in a much more variable Northern European climate.
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Climate has always changed Simon, and when it’s been warm as in the Minoan, Egyptian, Roman and Medieval climate optima when it’s been warmer than today, Civilisation has always thrived.
The fact that Europe today is having a few warm days is no big deal. Europeans should be rejoicing. Everyone loves warmth except a few miserable people who prefer to freeze in the dark.
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c’mon, you can do better than that.
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So can you.
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What was wrong with David’s statement? History shows us that particularly during the MWP, civilisations prospered and grew, while during colder times, civilisations suffered and shrank. There is absolutely no scientific basis for any alarmist claims of significantly increasing temperatures, so why cannot our wonderful globe enjoy a degree or two of more warmth?
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Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent and it has a tradition of governments being guided by science rather than religion or quackery. 2025 was a year of unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves, stunting animal and plant growth. 47 million tonnes of carbon was emitted from wildfires. Soil conditions were the driest in 33 years of observations.
033
“Wildfires” seems a bit over the top as a description of Europe’s fondness for marijuana.
More seriously, “tradition of governments being guided by science rather than religion or quackery” suggests that you are not familiar with even modern European history (Balkan Wars, Hitler’s Germany, Spanish Civil War) much less the wars of religion centuries ago.
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So it is local heat island warming not global warming – their problem if they prefer to freeze, not ours.
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Simon, don’t you see the contradiction, EU with their Paris Agreement, shutting down coal fired power stations, setting up wind farms, changing to electric powered cars, etc. and it has got hotter! Why, because they have changed their environment with less wind to evaporate surface water and thus cool the surface and produce greater humidity and clouds.
Worst of all they do not know that CO2 does not generate heat. It is a simple molecule, has mass and is matter. Heat is energy, an entirely different entity.
Are they that stupid ? Or is this a deliberate attempt to destroy Western Civilization and take over power from the people?
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That’s Jo’s point.
Yes. They just don’t understand the cause.
So nothing to do with CO2.
.
All this joannenova blog reading is maybe starting to have a positive effect on you.
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Are they? Flip-flops are cheaper than boots.
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‘AMOC is weakening, which is going to result in a much more variable Northern European climate.’
That is correct, global cooling is a real threat now that we are at the end of the Holocene.
There is much debate on the possible weakening of the AMOC, mostly hype. Are we to believe that a warmer world is responsible for this imminent collapse?
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This is the general thinking, could you do a critique?
https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/amoc-explainer/index.html
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Simon, most of May was rather chilly in the UK. Now, towards the end of the month, we are experiencing a very welcome period of warm weather. The so-called new record for May was set by a poorly positioned weather station near the great glass house in Kew Gardens in south east London – a good place to take measurements on a hot day if you want to break a record. Wales recorded its highest May temperature for the second day in a row. First on Monday a temperature of 32.2C was recorded at Hawarden Airport breaking the existing record of 30.6C set in 1944. (I wonder if CO2 was responsible for the old record set 82 years ago?). Then on Tuesday the temperature reached 32.9C in Bute Park in the centre of Cardiff. I live not far from Cardiff and nobody I know, including people in their 80s, complained the heat. People simply enjoyed the good weather. Only the climate change fanatics thought that the weather was a problem.
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No, no, noooo Roy, that can’t be right. Mann’s hockey stick graph demonstrates that all extreme weather came after the 1950s as CO2 emissions severely ramped up. Enough of this poppycock!
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When a comet 60 kilometres wide slammed into Lake Agassiz, around 12,800 years ago, most of the water surged into the Atlantic Ocean. The AMOC collapsed because fresh water entered the circulation.
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To long to wait, will there be anything to salvage of western countries blindly following this bent ideology!!??
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I can’t understand how anyone could be stupid enough to believe in this Paris agreement when even Dr Hansen told the Guardian in 2015 that it was just BS and a fra-d.
Anyway even the CSIRO has already told us that the entire SH is a NET ZERO SINK and the NH is a NET ZERO SOURCE.
IOW Australia’s lousy 1% of global co2 emissions is quickly removed by our natural sinks and no real scientist would claim otherwise.
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The CSIRO link and quote about SINKS and SOURCES can be found under seasonal variation at the link.
https://capegrim.csiro.au/
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It looks as though the CSIRO has based that statement on limited data from only 3 sites. Alert in NW Canada, Mauna Loa in the mid Pacific Ocean at 19 deg. N and Cape Grim Station in NW Tasmania at about 47 deg. S. The highest concentration of atmospheric CO2 is in the Equatorial zone due to the greater sea-surface temperature causing effervescence of CO2 from the ocean. The Northern Hemispheric has a greater annual variation in CO2 due to the larger land mass where vegetation absorbs CO2 in photosynthesis and released it in the Winter decay.
All of this independent of human activity unless we cut down forests to make room for wind farms!
60
Beats the tripe out of me too Nev. You’d reckon that with the available information that Australia is net zero already any fairdinkum, competent opposition would be shouting this out at every opportunity i.e. at every appearance in parliament, on tv, radio, social media, any means available.
Their either in on the scam or so totally brainless, gutless that you wouldn’t vote for them to run a chook raffle let alone a serious country.
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Before they spruik it they need to lock the CSIRO into its position. Otherwise the reference will just disappear.
Next time CSIRO is at a Senate Estimates Committee Meeting get Patterson or somebody with the same ability to lock them in.
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Spot on Neville but dumb politicians are now the real problem. The mob in Canberra are fall guys for anything about climate.
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hi Dave,
I disagree the real problem is high level corruption all else is protective theatre.
00
This is SUBVERSION by our own Grubbnmnt.
They are Insurgents.
Destroying OUR (the peoples) country from within.
Where’s the AFP and SAS when we need them?
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I have always wondered just who Albanese is working for because it is not us.
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Well, the AFP are clearly on the corrupt grubberment’s side, the SAS are busy fending of malicious rumours of war crimes in decades past on the word of Afghan goat headers.
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As sensible countries were starting to abandon or ignore the Paris Agreement, all of a sudden it’s weaponised.
And the incredibly naive and stupid Liberals tried to fence-sit as usual, saying it wasn’t legally enforceable but at the same time pretending to abandon Net Zero. No one believes them anyway.
Perhaps TRUMP should develop a trade bloc consisting only of nations which have abandoned the Paris Agreement. Millei’s Argentina would be a candidate as they are possibly close to abandoning Paris. Other sensible nations, not Australia, will follow, as the destructive effects of a legally enforceable Paris Agreement become apparent.
Australia won’t be a part because of TDS of our “leaders” and a fanatical commitment to deindustrialisation and de-energisation. Indeed, Australia just blew up another power station. The Europeans would be very happy with Australian socialists’ very own Nerobefehl, the Nero Decree of the National Socialists to destroy all German infrastructure to punish the German people for losing the war.
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As I commented and received red thumbs for posting
So much for Uniparty.
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There is already something bigger going on in the background.
The EU is a sinking boat with the Paris Agreement.
Below is an interesting view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fzRpbUU2GM
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Didn’t some long-dead white male say something about “Enemies; both foreign and domestic”?
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At what point will the Klimate Kult be recognised for what it is, a genuine and highly destructive cult?
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The EU and UN are both unelected, overpaid, privileged conspirators against Western Democracies. Both need to be disbanded. For the EU FREXIT and ITEXIT and GEREXIT are coming. Just one will bring down the three EU cities of extortionists.
Then which war has the UN solved? Trump is doing the job solo and EU leaders are openly sneering, refusing to help while they concentrate on destroying both Ukraine and Russia and helping China.
The UN people collectively and openly and repeatedly insulted the US President and his wife in his own building. Not unexpected. As Rodney Dangerfield would say, I get no respect. These are what are called Wilsonians. So overpaid, useless and deliberately destructive they may as well be Chinese communists. And who says they are not?
Lightweight Australian toy communist Labor leaders like Alabanese just love the EU and UN, when they are not visting China. We Australians are building a bronze statue of monster Premier Daniel Andrews who shuttled to China for instructions, without explanation. Maybe the sculptors could put lists of his dead victims and destroyed families on the base?
Who needs the old Country Party? Who needs the treacherous Liberals? Roll on One Nation and Farage’s Reform in the UK. We need liberation from these conspirators against their own people. And then we renegotiate everything.
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Professor Ole Humlum has looked up the data and found that a slight reduction in cloud cover could be the scientific reason we’ve had some beneficial warming since 1979.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/25/real-world-observations-do-not-support-the-position-that-climate-change-is-human-caused/
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What I find odd about such observations is the chain of cause and effect. Are clouds the cause? What causes the clouds. Clouds of water droplets are caused by evaporation. Evaporation is dependent on sunshine heating the water and the temperature of the water. So clouds are totally dependent on the two major sources of surface heat, the sun and the vast oceans. Perhaps as much water vapour which is the third biggest gas in the air, at 1% to 4% in most places. 100x as much as CO2 and a much wider absorption spectrum. So it is no suprise that ultimatately everything correlates with solar cycles (the 250 year De Vries cycle) and the ocean cycles (AMO/PDO El Nino for example). These are the true causes of water based climates. If clouds control climates then sun and currents are the cause as found by correlation.
This whole story of massive sensitivity to CO2 is ridiculous but calculated. And translates into massive taxes, now even import duties and direct impact on international trade. Meanwhile the same miscreants decry Donald Trump’s tariffs when they already charge huge tariffs. For example US tariffs on German Cars, 5%. German Tariffs on US cars, 25%. Where’s the fairness in that?
Now we are to be punished if we, for example, do not pay up on the UN CO2 bunker oil tax. Games on tariffs and on restraint of trade. Just being cheaper means nothing to the EU. They have people to protect and friends to enrich.
As for Australian tafiffs, I buy car parts I need personally direct from Germany. And end up paying for the parts, GST and shipping and a tariff on all. Often 30%. So much for free trade! There is no domestic Australian car industry to protect, but governments love the cash for doing nothing.
And the same Federal government quietly just daylight robbed us of $4.5Billion for road repairs? So no Federal road repairs? Leave that to the next government while jacking up road related taxes and Federal petrol excise. For what? Just theft. Like the EU.
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While we are on the subject ot yotalitarianism:
Cop this lot –
https://www.samizdata.net/2026/05/samizdata-quote-of-the-day-debunking-egalitarianism-edition/#comments
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” For the first time in a free trade agreement, Australia (and the EU) has made a binding commitment to implement obligations under the Paris Agreement on climate change.”
No wonder the Coalition wouldn’t sign this crapola.
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Murray Rothbard: Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are not actually about free trade, but are instead a modern form of mercantilism. Instead of opening borders to free market competition, politically well-connected corporate lobbies use complex, thousands-of-pages trade agreements to: Extend State Power, Protect Monopolies, Create expensive Bureaucracy. Western nations don’t have free market since 1914, when gold standard was suspended and later on, abolished. This shift marked the end of the genuinely unhampered free market, replacing it with modern interventionism where the state and favored corporate entities work in tandem. Mussolini’s paradise
https://mises.org/mises-daily/nafta-myth
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Does this also mean Australia will have to ban its coal and gas exports, among the few exports keeping the deindustrialised economy afloat?
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There’s another Australian government scam. Reservation. Consider that in the US gas prices have risen because while the US is self sufficient, Americans now have to compete with a huge growth in exports. People overseas who will pay more for US oil so Americans have to pay more. They wear that. The country is richer. Friends get oil when they need it. No one is being robbed. The goverment wears the electoral cost. And politicians accept that is reality, even if it means angry consumers and loss of votes. That’s actual free markets at work and Democaracy.
But Australia decides that oil and gas companies should ‘reserve’ oil and gas for Australian consumption, which means we do not have to pay the going price or invest in the resources. That is just robbing the oil and gas companies as if they are not taxed and regulated enough. And hides the fact that we could produce more, use our own coal, shale gas, fracking and explore more but the same government limits or prohibits or regulates such activity. No it’s simpler just to steal and claim it is good economic management when it is simply govenment theft with menaces, extortion. Or you could take the far kinder view that Labor economists like Dr Charlton and Dr Rudd and Dr Keating couldn’t run a chook raffle.
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Of course it’s theft with menaces – and no risk at all to the Treasury. It is impossible to despise the ALP enough.
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They would requisition the chook to be given to their friends at a price they decide. Communist economics.
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The WA 15% gas reservation scheme has worked very well for WA, ensuring a plentiful supply of cheap gas for domestic and industrial use. And since the majority of main SWIS grid power is derived from gas, the electricity prices are also low with minimal increases.
But this policy was introduced BEFORE the gas suppliers started exporting gas, so they could factor this into their costs and plan for it.
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They shouldn’t have to. The same governments which fought tooth and nail to stop gas and coal and iron ore (Forrest’s cool $150million fine) and seam gas and fracking and even forestry now wants to ‘reserve’ gas they had no part in investing to find.
It would be different if governments (and unions) actually supported the energy development industry instead of stealing from it. It would be different if they spent $1Billion on gas pipelines instead of a total wasted water pipeline for Forrest’s failed ammonia plant in Gladstone. We would be rolling in cheap energy domestically. Or even stopped blowing up coal and gas power plants. And stopped spending billions on SnowyII. And banning fracking and nuclear. Doesn’t anyone in government actually look at cost/benefit, or it all their money, their country and we have to rent from the aborigines as well?
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Linnea Luekin quickly explains that the co2 warming effect is logarithmic and today is nearly saturated in the atmosphere.
This video is only 2.5 minutes long and the saturated logarithmic effect is shown at 1 minute 30 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV2KozyIusg
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BTW here’s the co2 Coalition Scientist’s reference to the saturated co2 effect and a link to their latest study in 2025.
A graph of the saturated warming effect is also shown at the link.
https://co2coalition.org/facts/the-warming-effect-of-each-molecule-of-co2-declines-as-its-concentration-increases/
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Unfortunately Neville, the links that you provide are totally misleading. A thermos flask does not make its content hotter by reflecting the radiation back into the hot contents. Nor does atmospheric CO2 warm the Earth’s surface by absorption and re-radiation of a fraction of the outgoing radiation. In fact the main re-radiation from CO2 is at the 5 micron band equivalent to the peak radiation from a source at -80 deg.C.
The second link makes reference to a 2025 paper by eminent physicists Lindzen and Happer where is states:
“We are career physicists with a special expertise in radiation physics, which describes how CO2 and GHGs affect heat flow in Earth’s atmosphere. In our scientific opinion, contrary to most media reporting and many people’s understanding, the “scientific premises undergirding” the Net Zero Theory, all the Biden Net Zero Theory rules and congressional subsidies are scientifically false and “wrong,” and violate these two State Form mandates.”
-namely the Supreme Court mandates that an agency regulation is arbitrary, capricious and thus invalid.
10
The Coalition says it could oppose the Albanese government’s $10bn-a-year free-trade agreement with the EU, arguing it would lock future governments into Labor’s “partisan climate agenda” by making Australia’s emissions reduction pledges legally binding.
“Could oppose”?
Could oppose?
A $10 billion-a-year gotcha wedging the Coalition into the Bowen Plan?
Chump change compared to the costs of actually trying to achieve Labor’s commitments under Paris.
A smart Opposition, one not conflicted by relationships with the climate industry, would be doubling down and using that wedge to highlight the economic madness – and Labor’s carefree and reckless use of OPM for political ends.
Not handwringing.
270
Yet another acronym:
Climate Industrial Complex (CIC)
pronounced ‘sick’ or ‘psyche’.
Au revoir Paris, au revoir! 👋
80
Just another reason to vote One Nation. If the LNP won’t dump Paris along with all the subsidy madness one Nation certainly will!
70
And; from Kanuckistan:
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/05/26/more-pavilions-at-folkfest-86/
30
Yeah, that sounds bad. But then Labor is going to get hosed at the next election. PHON and the LNP will form a coalition govt, with PHON the majority and the LNP as their little b… you know what. Then Paris, binding agreements and other such gone forever. Cause the LNP and Labor won’t form govt again any time soon.
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Tony Dique,
Be careful what you wish for.
Imagine that the election went as you suggest: ON calling the shots, with the Lib/Nat pollies behind them on the government benches. Do you really think the Libs would be free of resentment? Is there no chance they might want to make a ON government look bad? Leaking against their own government to encourage the voters never to experiment with fringe politicians again?
Recent history: Abbott won government for them, with a whole bunch of new seats, and they proceeded to white-ant him. If they’ll do that to one of their own, they’d surely be willing to do it to ON. (it was very fitting that those new seats were all lost at the next election)
If ON is the junior partner, both groups have reason to really make it work.
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Firstly, LNP QLD is the Liberal National Party of Queensland, elsewhere Liberal and National parties are separate partners in a Coalition arrangement that began about 70 years ago when now National Party was the Country Party.
Second point that Prime Minister Abbott was replaced by Prime Minister Turnbull reported as having been a narrow vote ballot between Liberal MPs, not the Coalition joint party room MPs.
The Turnbull Government lasted three years from 2015 to 2018 when he lost support and was challenged by Dutton and Morrison who obviously were not LINO left faction. Morrison became Prime Minister and remained from 2018 to 2022, and as I have posted a few times here the Morrison Government did not follow the transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels agenda. Did not sign up to Glasgow COP 2021 net zero emissions, no agreement was signed, and as shown Paris 2016 and Glasgow 2021 are unenforceable.
Obviously if Australia was already committed to enforceable agreements the woke socialist EU Government (representing EU sovereign nations) would not have included net zero into trade negotiations from Morrison Government to now Albanese Government.
80
Dennis,
Your two points are no point.
#1 I didn’t mention LNP at all, referring to “Lib/Nat pollies” and “Libs”. In any case, you’re being deliberately obtuse. If you really are so exercised about people referring to the Coalition as LNP, maybe take it up with Wikipedia. They say the *federal* Coalition is commonly known as … the LNP.
#2 I said Abbott was white-anted and betrayed by “his own”. That’d be the Liberals wouldn’t it? By all means, sing it from the rafters. The Nats’ hands are clean. Abbott was knifed by his *Liberal* colleagues, supposedly his most loyal supporters. And you want people to think they’re trustworthy?
Your other two paragraphs have very little to do with my earlier comment. FWIW, I’ll concede that Morrison was less awful than Turnbull. OTOH, Dutton was a dismal candidate (from whatever faction). I’d have been astonished if the Libs had won with him as leader — even against the hideous Albanese.
Have to say I’m surprised you were unhappy with my comment. I thought you’d be pleased to know that I *don’t* relish the idea of ON becoming the senior party in a joint conservative government; that it’s better for the Libs to be at the front, with ON there to stop them doing stupid things.
91
Fact remains LNP despite what people tend to say is not Liberal Party or National Party, it was a merger in Queensland.
Liberal Party having the most electore seats in Opposition and in Goverment past and present have separate party rooms and meetings as well a meeting together in their joint party room.
When is it time to cease rear view mirror gazing and pretending it never and has not changed?
Prime Minister Abbott was also Opposition Leader and as Liberal Leader served from 2009 to 2015. Prime Minister Turnbull served 2015 to 2018. Prime Minister Morrison served 2018 to 2022 and when the Coalition was defeated by Labor in 2022 the new Opposition Leader became Dutton – who with Morrison campaigned successfully to have Turnbull replaced as leader.
Therefore, from 2009 to 2015 (6 years of Abbott) and from 2018 to 2022 (6 years of Morrison) Coalition in government over 12 years had 3 years only of Turnbull and left faction influence prevailing.
From Howard 1996 to 2007 (11 years) and 2008/09 Turnbull Opposition Leader (1 year) consider how many years were no left major influence periods. Am I claiming perfection, not at all, just setting the record straight.
And again, Federation of States formed Commonwealth of Australia and Federal Government, the former Colonial Governments at Federation retained most of their areas of reponsibilities and powers, and of course State Parliaments. When discussing most subjects including renewable energy and fossil fuels the States have major influences and including development applications, environment, electricity supply, etc.
It is not as political opponents too often claim to gain support and sympathy. They all do it of course.
13
Or the Libs and Labor form a coalition of the uniparty….
30
A former Labor MP on Sky recently commented that the Australian Labor Party (Union’s ALP – Constitution references to socialist objectives – associates Australian Fabian Society) has never considered a coalition with the Greens despite Greens most often supporting Labor in Parliament and preference deals for elections.
In 2010 when Prime Minister Gillard and Labor were in trouble after losing all the new electorate seats Labor led by Rudd gained in 2007 she formed an alliance with Greens and others to form a minority Labor government.
But no long term partnership planned or entered into.
Liberal and Labor are a very long way apart in political positions.
33
Dennis,
You *are* in a nitpicky mood today, aren’t you!
Yes, the Coalition has a big formal agreement drawn up between the parties. You will find other meanings for the word “coalition” if you look it up (remember the coalition of the willing).
To avoid confusion, Gazzatron might have been better just to say “agreement” or “arrangement”. One between Liberal and Labor is quite conceivable; something akin to the one in France between centrist and left parties that kept Le Pen’s party from government.
All it takes is a scary enough bogey-man figure and they’ll be onto it.
70
If one removes the unions from the ALP, what remains is the Libs. Completely untrustworthy – the ON electoral cattle prod is constantly needed.
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ALP National Constitution
PART A – PRELIMINARY
Definitions
1 (a) In this National Constitution, unless the contrary intention appears:
(i) “Administrative Committee” means the Administrative Committee of a state
branch and includes a State Executive of a state branch;
(ii) “ALP”, “Labor” and “Party” all mean the Party named in clause 10;
(iii) “financial”, in relation to membership, includes:
(A) life members and other members deemed to be financial under state
branch rules, and
(B) members who have not yet renewed their membership, but who will
retain continuity of financial membership under state branch rules if
they renew their membership by the date specified in those rules;
(iv) “FPLP” means the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party;
(v) “nationally affiliated union” means a union whose state branches are
affiliated with the Party in a majority of states in which it operates;
(vi) “state” includes a territory;
(vii) “state branch” includes a territory branch; and
(viii) “territory” means the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern
Territory.
(b) To avoid doubt, this National Constitution includes all of Parts A–F.
Legal status of National Constitution
2 (a) It is intended that the National Constitution and everything done in connection
with it, all arrangements relating to it (whether express or implied) and any
agreement or business entered into or payment made or under the National
Constitution, will not bring about any legal relationship, rights, duties or outcome
of any kind, or be enforceable by law, or be the subject of legal proceedings.
Instead all such arrangements, agreements and business are only binding in
honour.
(b) Without limiting clause 2(a), it is further expressly intended that all disputes
within the Party, or between one member and another that relate to the Party be
resolved in accordance with the National Constitution and the rules of the state
branches and not through legal proceedings.
(c) By joining the Party and remaining members, all members of the Party consent to
be bound by this clause.
3
adopted 19 August 2023
PART B – OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES
Origins
3 The Australian Labor Party had its origins in:
(a) the aspirations of the Australian people for a decent, secure, dignified and
constructive way of life;
(b) the recognition by the trade union movement of the necessity for a political voice
to take forward the struggle of the working class against the excesses, injustices
and inequalities of capitalism; and
(c) the commitment by the Australian people to the creation of an independent, free
and enlightened Australia.
Objectives
4 The Australian Labor Party is a democratic socialist party and has the objective of the
democratic socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange, to the
extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in these fields.
5 To achieve the political and social values of equality, democracy, liberty and social co-
operation inherent in this objective, the Australian Labor Party stands for:
(a) redistribution of political and economic power so that all members of society have
the opportunity to participate in the shaping and control of the institutions and
relationships which determine their lives;
(b) establishment and development of public enterprises, based upon federal, state
and other forms of social ownership, in appropriate sectors of the economy;
(c) democratic control and strategic social ownership of Australian natural resources
for the benefit of all Australians;
(d) maintenance of and support for a competitive non-monopolistic private sector,
including small business and farming, controlled and owned by Australians,
operating within clear social guidelines and objectives;
(e) the right to own private property;
(f) recognition and encouragement of the right of labour to organise for the
protection and advancement of its interests;
(g) the application of democracy in industry to increase the opportunities for people
to work in satisfying, healthy and humane conditions; and to participate in and to
increase their control over the decision making processes affecting them;
(h) the promotion of socially appropriate technology and the monitoring of its
introduction to ensure that the needs and interests of labour, as well as the
requirements of competitive industry and consumer demand, are taken into
consideration;
(i) the restoration and maintenance of full employment;
(j) the abolition of poverty, and the achievement of greater equality in the
distribution of income, wealth and opportunity
25
As you may have noticed, I find all that political nitpickery completely irrelevant, while what is important is our non-democracy and its effect on the subjects of this country.
WE should be deciding what free trade agreements Australia enters into, not the Govt. Every big decision should be voted on, after all, if they can have computerised driving licences as ID cards, Govt online accounts for every one of us, it can’t be hard for every one of us to vote online for these measures. Put the proposal up on the Govt website and give us two weeks to vote on it, so they form the proposal and implement it if passed, but we make the decision to pass it or not.
Currently this is not a democracy, picking the ruler every four years is not giving the people any power. Nothing will change until this aspect does.
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Especially when the ruler seeks to implement policies that they did not campaign on or promised not to alter (ie, increasing net zero targets and altering the Capital Gains Tax).
A healthy democracy, one that is by the people for the people, should not involve the ruler arbitrarily adjusting policies without consent. This point is lost on TDS sufferers. They howl that the USA is a dictatorship whilst bumbling Albo subtly pushes through agendas contrary to pledges made (or not made during the election campaign).
50
It’s one thing for a government to want to cripple it’s own country economically. But, seeking to lock in the damage so it can never be undone is taking the vandalism to a whole new level.
00
Agreeing to this trade agreement is Australia’s mini-BREXIT moment. There will be others, but this is probably the first time this Coalition team has had to face the voters with direct action. Vote for EU trade and Paris or vote against it and signal the break with the scam investors inside and out.
Could oppose? We all know they could oppose. That’s the point, the Nationals needs to come out and categorically state they oppose the agreement. And force the Liberals hand, one way or another. Stand up for what’s good for Australia. Is Matt Canavan a Canavan or a Caravan being towed along by Liberals?
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Of course we should be reminded that our Quaternary geologic period has the lowest levels of co2 in the last 600 million years.
Thanks to the co2 Coalition Scientists for their facts archive.
Look up the much lower co2 levels today, compared to the much higher NATURAL co2 levels of the past 600 hundred million years.
https://co2coalition.org/facts/our-current-geologic-period-quaternary-has-the-lowest-average-co2-levels-in-the-last-600-million-years/
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In the last four glacial advances our co2 levels were dangerously low for many thousands of years and our last glacial advance saw co2 levels drop to just 180 ppm or just 30 ppm above the death of life on Earth.
Thanks again to the co2 Coalition Scientists for warning us about the danger of low co2 levels.
https://co2coalition.org/facts/dangerously-low-co2-last-four-glacial-advances/
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These are the countries which voted against weaponisation of the Paris Agreement.
Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Yemen.
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“These are the countries which voted against weaponisation of the Paris Agreement.”
Then those are the countries we should actively promote trade with.
40
I have commented here about this rotten Albanese Labor trade deal with the EU previously and regarding the net zero provision and the use of land here subject to EU approval.
It has taken eight (8) years of negotiation and the Coalition in government had not been prepared to accept various EU terms and conditions of trade to be imposed.
Quote: Deputy Opposition Leader Matt Canavan;
“The Coalition has slammed the agreement, with opposition trade spokesman Matt Canavan declaring it “the worst trade deal ever” after farmers and other industry groups criticised quotas.
“A few years ago, the government walked away from the discussions with the EU on a free trade deal … and when they did so they said that they wouldn’t sign any deal, they would only sign a good deal,” he told reporters.
“They made a promise to Australian farmers that they would only sign a good deal, not any deal.
“Well, today, the government has broken that promise with Australian farmers because clearly they have signed any deal.”
120
The EU FTA was always a dud, agreed. Now it’s even worse, what is Don Farrell even thinking? But, I suppose he’s like the rest of the Labor ministers. Not fit for purpose.
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The Morrison government initiated negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union. This agreement aims to lower trade and investment barriers, benefiting Australian exports and enhancing economic ties with the EU, a market of around 450 million people. The negotiations were part of a broader strategy to strengthen Australia’s trade relationships amid global economic challenges.
50
“benefiting Australian exports and enhancing economic ties with the EU, a market of around 450 million people.”
So the population size of South America. We should be promoting ourselves in Chile and Argentina, young countries that have a future, not ones that are fading. When Europe collapses it will drag us down with it.
50
Wow, it’s almost like the scheming rats in the Labor and Greens parties read this blog and other oppositional comments to counter any progress made in the conservative movement.
With Labor having the numbers in the house of Reps and the Senate the “opposition” can say they oppose it and it will still get voted through anyway.
60
Again, more co2 means more plant growth, because plants love more co2.
What’s more important than feeding more plants and animals + Humans for a more prosperous future.
https://co2coalition.org/facts/more-co2-means-more-plant-growth/
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The CO2 Coalition is an astro-turf operation that is clearly unfamiliar with Liebig’s Law of the Minimum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig%27s_law_of_the_minimum
120
Little value in attacking the messenger astro-turf.
We know from paleo climate history 18,000 years ago, when the planet emerged from full glaciation, that CO2 was implicated and the world began to green.
41
So, do you accept that Liebig means that there is a minimum quantity of CO2 required in the atmosphere for agriculture to survive, and that higher levels enable it to thrive?
Or did you not understand its implications in that regard?
70
As an export market for Australia the EU ranks 4th overall and 6th for agriculture in terms of $. So, they’re important but not precious, so we should tell them to go jump. There would be some minerals that the EU needs from us especially, but probably not our ag products. With work and support any cancelled ag products could be directed to our closer neighbours in Asia. Hence, Australia would have some wriggle room. The FTA with EU is a dud and it’s why it’s taken so long to formulate. Having CO2 emissions traps in the FTA was just crazy. Again, tell them to go jump.
170
I wonder if the EU countries for the EU Government trade deal have agreed to stop subsidising tiny farms and produce?
141
The EU like our canola and that forms the biggest part of our ag exports. It’s a major feedstock for bio diesel. We have a harvest timing advantage and they like our minimal cultivated, non GM canola seed especially. Ironically, they like our canola because due to minimal cultivation there is less Greenhouse gas emissions involved in our production methods. But the seed just gets crushed for bio diesel and burnt in diesel engines, so who bloody cares? The deal is a dud, just reject the demands re Paris and go back to re- negotiating.
150
Energy expert Kathryn Porter explains why W & S are expensive, dangerous and unreliable.
I’d also add that W & S have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years and the toxic mess cleaned up and they destroy the environment and kill thousands of animals.
Of course the electricity generated from these disasters is also a sick joke. Just look up the facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98B0MhTNwVY
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W & S have to be replaced every 15 to 20 years
Untrue, none of them will be replaced. Only the solar panels on households will be replaced. Grid scale wind and solar are already dead assets. The theft they depended on is all but gone and no sensible investor wants to take on the risk of cost blowout and sovereign risk as ONP gain momentum.
140
It will be interesting to see if any wind or solar installations are replaced. So far this hasn’t happened, so I suspect what you are saying will be proved true.
80
The Abbott Plan of election campaign 2013 when the Coalition Opposition defeated Rudd Labor Government in a landslide defeat was development of Northern Australia extending irrigation agriculture East from the Kununurra Irrigation Scheme supplied by the Ord River Dam using named “wild rivers” and land area similar to Western Europe with dams, hydro electricity, towns, roads, and other developments resulting.
Abbott Government joined with the QLD LNP Newman Government and they successfully overturned Labor’s Wild River legislation to enable development of those rivers.
Nothing more mention after PM Abbott was replaced by PM Turnbull late in 2015.
101
Further irrigation is an excellent idea for Australia but of course won’t happen.
We could have largely drought-proofed and flood-proofed Australia plus had a little hydro as a bonus, had we not thrown away countless billions on wind and solar, indebted the country and destroyed the economy.
130
And right now Albanese Government has instructed the sovereign wealth Future Fund Board to invest in the wind and solar transition debacle because private sector investors are few and far between.
$300 billion of funds invested in Future Fund since established by Howard Government with $60 billion and has been required to pay public service pensions removing the liability from the then future financial year budget plans and provision to pay.
100
The reason why no sensible voter should ever vote LNP again.
Hawk and Keating actually worked for Australians. Keating’s productivity commission addressed real issues and put Australia onto a path of productivity growth. There were some mistakes that are yet to be unwound but it was Hawk’s sense of fairness that resulted in the pilot strike in 1989. This from a staunch Labor leader placed him in the same arena as Joh on industrial relations.
Howard entrenched the Renewable Energy Theft. Abbott tried to get rid of it but Turnbull and friends were making too much money from it to allow it to be killed. Every electricity consumer without rooftop solar should be going after Turnbull for what he did to them.
150
Prime Minister Hawke was removed in favour of Prime Minister Keating.
Prime Minister Rudd was replaced by Prime Minister Gillard.
Prime Minister Gillard was replaced by Prime Minister Rudd (Albanese MP sided with Rudd to remove the first female Labor PM and she was the last)
Opposition Leader Shorten replaced by Opposition Leader Albanese.
Now consider the One Nation musical chairs events over 29 years of achieving what?
Since 2018 the Liberal Party has diluted the LINO left considerably as the Dutton and Morrison challenge revealed resulting in Prime Minister Morrison appointed and he remained PM after the 2019 election until the 2022 election when Labor defeated the Coalition. Opposition Leader Dutton was appointed (voted into position) until 2025 election defeat and the left somehow managed to get Ley appointed Opposition Leader but that lasted a year and she was replaced with a two-thirds Liberal MP vote by Angus Taylor 2026. Around the same time Matt Canavan was appointed unopposed.
Years ago the ALP left and right split occurred and resulted in the DLP – Democratic Labor Party – being formed.
Political parties all have their ups and downs, personality clashes, ambitions overtaking capabilities office politics, etc.
Rear view mirror gazing is of the past that cannot be changed.
The future begins now.
67
Rear view mirror gazing is of the past that cannot be changed.
The future begins now.
Sounds great.
Unfortunately, the bums on Canbra seats have a past that informs how they will behave in the future that begins now. There’s no CtrlC to reset the bastards.
90
Like commercial airlines and other examples bums on seats change.
14
A little known fact today is that when the Fraser Coalition Government replaced Whitlam Labor Government and inherited a recession beginning the Treasurer was Howard who later became Prime Minister after the Hawke Keating Governments 1983 to 1996. In 1983 the Australian economy had recovered and was growing again.
Treasurer Howard and permanent Head of Treasury Stone had created a plan for major economic reform when the economy was ready, after Hawke Government was elected Stone introduced Treasurer Keating to that plan reviewed and endorsed by an economics professor and his recommendations called The Campbell Report which was adopted by the Hawke Government and implementation began 1985. The Report contents were also adopted by Lange Labour New Zealand in full, as compared to Australia despite full Coalition Opposition support was not fully implemented and that was completed by the Howard Government after 1996.
Part of the reforms was deregulation of the banking and finance sector, floating of the Australian Dollar, and others however no specific government watchdog was formed by Labor and all together resulted in the economic meltdown that was the worst recession in 60 years. Howard Government in 1998 established APRA – Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority.
Hawke and Keating governments deserve recognition for implementation of Campbell Report going as far as they did before their Union Movement controllers stopped them (admitted by Keating on ABC This Day Tonight at the time) and other initiatives, notable among them The Accord with the Australian Council of Trade Unions targeting economic prosperity and removing union influences on private sector business activities. The later Rudd Gillard governments introduced Fair Work Australia industrial relations legislation that overturned many of the Accord changes.
Another example of Liberal National contributions to national prosperity and in between times most often Labor creating problems with finances and economy, etc.
40
The trade deal the E.U. has hatched,
By Australia, must be equally matched,
Which Australians will lose,
When they tighten the screws,
As they’ve Net Zero strings attached.
140
Even the Royal Society told the truth and informed us that there is nothing we can do to reduce co2 levels in the atmosphere.
Even if every country stopped emitting co2 today we wouldn’t see a change in co2 levels for THOUSANDS of years.
Just read the first few paragraphs or look at the graphs of the study.
The Conversation agrees and yet no comments from the IPCC, their ABC, the BBC , Gore, Hansen, Labor Greens or any of the other liars and con artists etc. Why is it so?
https://royalsociety.org/news-resources/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-20/
100
They are in denial, but there is agreement that we are returning to the Holocene Climate Optimum.
‘None of the new scenarios are as pessimistic as RCP8.5/SSP5-8.5. The worst possible scenario now envisions high emissions leading to warming of around 3.5°C by 2100.’ (The Conversation)
12
Neville, the second line of the Royal Society report states that CO2 in the atmosphere would remain hing because of “its very slow transfer to the deep ocean.” How do they know that the transfer to the deep ocean is very slow?
60
Are Free Trade Agreements between countries enforceable or not?
Example the actions of CCP China during the pandemic period when several countries and leaders requested an inquiry into the source of COVID-19 virus, China quickly imposed a ban on several products exported to China from Australia and despite the Morrison Government protesting and referring the breaches of trade terms and conditions for international trade consideration nothing was accomplished. Later Albanese Government withdrew the trade complaint.
Once again consider what Prime Minister Howard told a journalist who asked him about international law enforcement, he replied not enforceable in sovereign nations unless the government accepts the foreign interference.
Quote;
The most common challenges in enforcing free trade agreements (FTAs) include limited government resources for implementation, lack of coordination between agencies responsible for negotiation and enforcement, and a tendency for governments to neglect ongoing oversight after agreements are signed. Additionally, disputes are often handled informally rather than through formal dispute settlement procedures.
And note that the Coalition Government negotiated with EU Government until changeover to Albanese Labor May 2022, and the Coalition would not accept various terms and conditions the EU Government wanted to impose.
50
It’s just extortion by trade war. If Trump uses tariffs, he is a monster. If the EU does the same thing, even blocking commodities entirely, that’s just signed agreements.
All our trade agreements with the EU and those of member states with the EU, are controlled by bureaucrats in Brussels who never get their shoes dirty. The same ones trying to concrete over the Nederlands because they are too efficient. The excuse is always the Climate.
In the US the supporters of alien criminals are complaining that Immigration Customs Enforcement are flying so many illegal aliens home that the world is heating rapidly. I guess they should be made to walk home. To save the planet.
The new cry of the government ripoff artists and trade pirates is ‘protect the climate’. It’s so absurd.
100
ON and the LNP need to just ignore the UN.
70
Its alright for them to say it in Opposition, but governments are more restrained.
14
Yet another act of Labor skullduggery. Another turn of the screw from Corkscrew Albo.
60
…the Albanese government’s $10bn-a-year free-trade agreement…
Two-way trade between Australia and the EU totalled ~$110billion in 2025. Of which $25billion was Australian exports (primarily minerals and fibre).
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/countries-and-regions/australia_en
After a quick glance at the DFAT summary, it’s a bit hard to see where the $10 billion comes from – certainly not an obvious $10b increase. The main features of the FTA seem to be long-dated (as in 3 to 7-10 years long-dated) increases in meat and dairy quotas, perhaps worth $250m at current prices.
Nice, but not a 40% increase.
I’m obviously just a peanut observer, but the other trade benefits identified by DFAT – reduced tariffs on wine, nuts and olive oil, lower barriers to investment and professional consultancy, an eliminated 5% tariff on certain minerals, and increased opportunities for exports of critical minerals and hydrogen – do seem to be doing a lot of work.
https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/not-yet-in-force/aeufta/key-outcomes-and-benefits
While it’s nice that the A-EU FTA expressly acknowledges our First Nations people, however there may, just possibly may, be some creative accounting and unicorns on the loose.
60
Any idea how much of our interational trade is generated by First Nations manufacturing, mining or agriculture? A percentage will do because the cost is $42Billion a year in government subsidies. Andew Forrest was just fined. He esecaped lightly.
“Fortescue, was ordered by the Federal Court to pay a landmark $150 million compensation to the Yindjibarndi people in Western Australia. This is the highest native title compensation payout in Australian history, awarded because the company mined sacred land without the traditional owners’ permission.” Clearly they thought no one was home or would notice.
We had better be careful or we might be deported. Unwelcome to country. No burned gum leaves for us. But I doubt we could claim a homeland in the EU either.
(My wife’s mother was born in London and never had an Australian passport. So my wife had Certificate of Patriality. This is no longer honoured by the British Government, but currently the UK allow 40,000 illegal migrants a year who are not British or Christian, even though legally not in the EU. So much for rules.)
171
Any idea how much of our interational trade is generated by First Nations manufacturing, mining or agriculture?
I’ve spent a fair bit of time over the past 30-odd years dealing with the fruits of the Native Title Act.
So, yes.
60
Australian exports to EU nations are only 8.6% of our total exports.
50
That’s a failure to negotiate, nothing less. EU is a massively protected market, but they even protect their own favorites within that market, not the cheapest and best, just friends of Brussells. You would think EU was the mafia.
60
Dear Jo,
I only heard about you because of A.Bolt.
BUT!
You make EXTREME sense and follow it up with facts, plus, you are a woman!!
It’s definitely the decade/s of believing in the woman!! Thanks to various acronyms/bodies/governments..
You need to go Mainstream-without being-Mainstream!
Not enough truth is in the Media or spotlight..
70
Scott Morrison gave us this. He was ultimately just another left-lurching fool. Unfortunately, I’m sure the Liberals have more of them waiting in the wings.
00