Graph of the Day: Climate politics and intergenerational theft

There has been a lot of discussion about the inter-generational report, and the concept of “intergenerational theft” – skewed entirely by the current government around the idea of debt.

Of course, much of this has been debunked, but this graph grabbed out attention. The number of times climate change was mentioned in the report, this time, and in the three previous occasions.

The 2002 and 2007 reports were produced by the Howard governments, and the 2010 report by Labor, which actually had a climate change policy. Now we are back to a Coalition government, and climate change is barely mentioned. It did not feature once in the media statement issued by Treasurer Joe Hockey.

Ketan Joshi, a wind industry employee who prepared the graph said: “It isn’t particularly surprising that climate change was largely left out of the Intergenerational Report, but it is neatly representative of the approach that tackling a scientifically verified problem involves quietly pretending it’s not there.

“I think we underestimate how horrified and appalled future generations will be at our current blasé attitude towards this issue – not just in Hockey’s report but throughout society.”