I was a little startled to read this bit from coverage of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recent speech to coal mining interests:
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison railed against environmental protesters in a lunchtime speech on Friday, warning of a “new breed of radical activism” that was “apocalyptic in tone” and pledging to outlaw boycott campaigns that he argued could hurt the country’s mining industry.
The remarks were made to an audience at the Queensland Resources Council, an organization that represents peak mining interests in the northeastern Australian state. …
Morrison, an evangelical Christian and a vocal supporter of President Trump, finds himself aligned with the U.S. leader on support for the coal industry. Australia is one of the largest coal producers on earth, with the industry supplying roughly 50,000 jobs but disproportionately responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. [WaPo]
I was rather fascinated to see him described as a Trumpian Evangelical, and, while I certainly neither heard the speech nor read a transcript, it sure appears that science is not playing into his mindset. Instead, it feels like, to him, it’s all about politics, which is to say, one group against another:
The Australian prime minister’s remarks took aim at secondary boycotts, in particular the boycotts that target firms that work with the Adani company in opening a controversial new mine in Queensland. In an interview with 3AW radio on Friday, Morrison said that secondary boycotts were “targeting decent small businesses who are providing services to the mining industry.”
“They’re being black-banned, and they’re being harassed,” Morrison said. “And this is not something that any Australian should have to put up with.”
Morrison told 3AW that he was considering whether secondary boycotts for environmental reasons could be made illegal. Australia, like the United States, already has laws that ban secondary boycotts run by labor unions. “It’s not okay for environmental . . . well, they’re not environmental, they’re activist groups. That’s what they are,” Morrison said. …
“I hear a lot about progressivism at the moment,” Morrison said in his speech. The word sounds lovely and “gives you a warm glow,” he added.
“I will tell you what it means,” the prime minister continued. “Those who claim the title want to tell you where to live, what job you can have, what you can say and what you can think — and tax you more for the privilege of all of those instructions that are directed to you.”
I note that he defends Australia’s progress on the climate change crisis, but refuses to try to improve its goals and, according to The Guardian, misrepresents Australia’s progress on climate chagen. He recently skipped a recent global conference on the matter.
In an understandable position, as a long time politician he sees the world principally through political eyes, so he’s going to go way over the top in demonizing those who are advocating a position at odds with his world-view, which is basically believing that a Divinity would never permit their world to become an unhappy place – at least not for Evangelicals.
Unfortunately, this disregard of science and adherence to a traditional view found in Evangelicals is a toxic brew, because it denies inconvenient realities and attempts to adhere to a traditional philosophy of doing things – a laissez-faire approach in which greater considerations than those impacting the parties involved in transactions are not in the least considered, which is to say that your pollution is someone else’s problem, especially if it can’t be traced back to you.
This absolute certainty that God is on your side is disaster when the blinded believer also happens to be a politician completely willing to tell voters that there’s nothing to worry about, and your Big Coal industry is really being victimized by soft-headed liberals. Rather than leading, he’s merely prating.
And I must admit this bit made me laugh out loud:
He argued that the “right to protest does not mean there is an unlimited license to disrupt people’s lives and disrespect your fellow Australians.”
It’s so accurate to replace right to protest with right to make money, and he doesn’t seem to realize it.
