One election cycle after the federal Coalition was Australian tossed out of government following a voter backlash against inaction on climate and renewables, the Liberal National Party has scored just 1 point out of 100 for its policies supporting climate and renewables.
The “woeful score” was awarded to the Coalition as part of the Australian Conservation Foundation’s election scorecard, described as an issue-based assessment of how closely parties and candidates align with the ACF’s own policy agenda for protecting nature and acting on climate.
ACF CEO Kelly O’Shanassy says it’s the lowest mark the election scorecard has ever given the Coalition – even lower than the 4/100 awarded in 2019, the year Tony Abbott lost his “safe” Liberal seat of Warringah in a protest vote against his climate wrecking efforts while prime minister.
“The Coalition’s woeful score reflects its damaging, regressive policies: climate wrecking gas, and expensive and risky nuclear energy over clean, affordable renewables, coupled with cuts to environment protection at the behest of the fossil fuel industry,” O’Shanassy said on Tuesday.
O’Shanassy says the Coalition scored its single point for acknowledging concerns about details of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal that could saddle Australia with high levels of nuclear waste from overseas. But that is it.
“Australia would be a worse place to live under the Coalition’s policies,” she said.
The scorecard is based on surveys of the major parties and independent candidates in key seats to determine where they stand on the 16 outcomes in ACF’s national agenda.
The 16 outcomes come under four general headings: Save nature, Champion renewables, Reject nuclear, No new coal and gas.
The ACF also conducts its own analysis and research of the parties and candidates’ survey responses, public policies, voting records, and statements, measuring them against all 54 tests of success in ACF’s national agenda.
And, as can be seen, the contrast between the major parties is stark.
While the Greens were typically ranked at the top, with a score of 98 per cent, Labor’s policies only managed to secure a 54 per cent pass – the party losing points for its ongoing support for new coal and gas projects and for falling short on promises of environmental policy reform.
“Labor scored points for its work on the clean energy and clean manufacturing transition and its strong stance against costly, thirsty, risky nuclear power, but lost points for its commitment to expanding the climate-wrecking coal and gas industries,” O’Shanassy says.
“Labor came to government in 2022 promising to strengthen Australia’s failing nature laws but ended the term rushing through a bill to weaken them. Sadly, nature is more poorly protected at the end of the Albanese government’s term than it was at the start.
“While Labor has renewed its promise to establish a federal environment protection agency – a promise it took to the last election but didn’t deliver – its commitment to overhaul the national nature protection laws remains unclear.”
The full scorecard (see below) accords a handful of individuals four green-ticks, though the actual percentages for each candidate vary significantly despite this.
Highest among the individual candidates is Caz Heise, an independent running for the federal seat of Cowper in New South Wales, who scored a total of 97 per cent.
Cowper, which runs from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast, has been in the hands of the Nationals since 1963, and is currently held by Pat Conaghan, who currently has a 2.3 per cent margin, which was cut from 11.9 per cent at the 2022 election.
Other individual candidates ranked in the 90 per cent range include Zali Steggall in Warringah, NSW (93 per cent); Monique Ryan in Kooyong, Victoria (92 per cent); Andrew Wilkie in Clark (formerly Denison), Tasmania (96 per cent); and Nicolette Boele in Bradfield, NSW (91 per cent).
Four individuals received universal “crosses” on their scorecard including Bob Katter, Dai Le, Andrew Gee, and Russel Broadbent. The only positive the ACF could find for these four candidates was the fact that both Dai Le and Russel Broadbent had both supported signing the Treaty for Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – a claim that could not even be levelled at the Liberal and National Coalition, which only secured a quarter-mark for committing to responsibly manage Australia’s nuclear waste.
For parties, the ACF’s best score was awarded to the Greens, at 98/100.
“The Greens’ policy platform sets out measures to stop Australia pouring fuel on the climate fire, massively increase funding for nature and overhaul national nature laws so they genuinely protect the creatures and places Australians love,” says O’Shanassy.
“We hope Australians will look their family members in the eye before heading to the polls and use their vote to elect a parliament that will protect our climate, wildlife and kids.”
