MELBOURNE, Aug 29, 2018 – Melbourne artists commissioned by Greenpeace have carved a spectacular ice sculpture, displaying three large busts of the Australian prime ministers toppled by the fossil fuel industry for acting to prevent climate change.Groups of passers-by stopped to watch as two artists went to work transforming 1m-high blocks of ice, into busts of some of our nation’s recently vanquished leaders.
“At his final press conference as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull said the Coalition had a problem with legislating climate policy,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.
“That problem is the influence of the coal lobby. At the coal barons’ urging, leader after leader has been torn down for daring to act in the interests of Australians, who don’t want to pay for electricity with polluted air, waterways and ill health.
“For a decade leaders have tumbled while the climate action we desperately need has stalled. With the nation plagued by chronic drought and mid-winter bushfires, persisting with the status quo is no longer an option. Australians want leaders that will put us on a path to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and we deserve leaders who will take the fight seriously and won’t waver when the coal lobby makes its threats.”
Last Friday Malcolm Turnbull joined the growing list of casualties from Australia’s climate wars when he was toppled in a second leadership challenge over his emissions policy.
“In 2009 Turnbull was dumped, as opposition leader, for supporting Labor’s plan to introduce an economy-wide emissions trading scheme. In the years since, climate policy has gone so far backwards that Turnbull’s pathetic electricity sector plan with no emissions reduction element whatsoever was enough to topple him,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
“The coal lobby has gone from deposing leaders who dare to take action on climate change to toppling leaders for just thinking about it.”
Kevin Rudd felt the full wrath of the mining and fossil fuels industry, when they launched a vicious and well-financed campaign against his proposed mining tax and emissions trading scheme.
As Prime Minister, Julia Gillard was able to introduce carbon pricing, but it cost her the job as she was deposed by Kevin Rudd amid a relentless scare campaign around carbon pricing by then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
“Australians needs leaders that put their interests ahead of the profits of the fossil fuel industry,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
“One-hundred percent renewables by 2030 is entirely doable but the undemocratic influence of the coal lobby has made it politically impossible for the Coalition. We can no longer let their internal party problems hold back the leadership Australia needs.”
For high-quality photos and video:
https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MZIFJWNCOWC (uploads will begin at 3pm and continue throughout the afternoon)
For interviews:
Martin Zavan, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422
