The sustainability and climate industry is on a tear of optimism that we have not seen for a long time. Edge Impact’s Max Van Bien summed it up in a social media post of Monday night – his clients had been firmly cemented in a “wait and see” mode for months. Now the phones were ringing off the hook.
It’s been a tough start to the year among those parts of the industry that depend on nuanced economic and political sentiment. Trump kicked off with his swinging toxic mallet early in the piece and it was alarming to see the opposition leader laud him and promise to follow.
What looked very possible was that the hard won sustainability and climate gears would crunch into a hard reverse and this time blow the engine to bits. We suspect many people simply didn’t have the heart to withstand another brutal set of politics of the scale we’ve seen before in this country and worse, that wanted to mimic Trump.
But come Saturday night the sighs of relief were palpable. Anthony Albanese had led his party to an historic win and with it came the promise of a net positive future.
At a corporate advocacy gathering on Teams that we poked our heads into on Thursday we heard that the immediate response was that $100 million of investment in renewables that had been poised on a knife edge would now go ahead. And that the Asia Pacific region is now seen globally as the new hot spot on the planet for green prosperity.
The positive mood is filtering throughout the industry.
Edge Impact’s Max Van Bien summed it up in a social media post on Monday night – his clients had been firmly cemented in a “wait and see” mode for months. Now the phones were ringing off the hook.
So, can we get back to unfinished business now? Is it time for the newly re-elected Albanese government to finish the work it started and to scale up ambition to the level that pays homage to the brilliant mandate it’s been handed for courageous leadership?
There’s no excuse now. Those disclosure laws that big corporates were hoping would just go away, are now a real thing.
This is the world not as we see it on social media reels, but IRL (in real life). It’s hard work but it’s been started and with a third term for the Labor Party likely, according to the pundits, there has never been a better time go fast and furious.
But first, a massive shout out to our young people, who now outnumber the baby boomers and who clearly demonstrated that though they own the technology of the future, and though it can look glib or vacuous (or whatever else the boomers think) these young people are not to be fooled.
They discerned the facts through the fog of politico/corporate public mis-speak, they homed in on what matters to them.
If they sent a big signal on housing and cost of living priorities, we need to remember that to secure our future we first need to secure our present.
Critical to this is a fully implemented Future Made in Australia, the clean energy transition, nature positive laws, the retrofit of existing buildings to be electric and resilient for our future, which means energy efficient, and decent affordable housing for those who are still so badly served in this wealthy country.
We need to channel that electric sense we got on Saturday night, of a country united, a people on the same page, with similar ambitions to work towards a better future.
The responses
We’ve gathered a selection of election responses and revived agendas and they underscore the optimism we picked up around the traps.
Among the first we noticed was from Dermott O’Gormon, boss of WWF, with a call to pitch hard and fast for Adelaide to host the next COP. With any luck (our thoughts not his) it will turn around the regressive tendencies the South Australian government has been showing of late on environmental issues and the National Construction Code.
Another interesting note came from Jillian Button, partner at legal firm Allens, who pointed out the make up of the new Senate. While the Greens have been almost wiped out in the lower house they are surprisingly strong in the Senate and the government will need their support to push through legislation.
The Greens
Among the regrettable losses was Adam Bandt who lost his seat of Melbourne. He said on Thursday afternoon he needed to “climb Everest to win”. This was partly because of the electoral redistribution, but also we think, some weird self-inflicted wounds the Greens seem prone to.
Like any big movement or idea that struggles from behind to take a leadership position, there’s a constant threat of hubris or overreach that can quickly turn to a fatal flaw that undermines success.
Maybe third parties don’t actually want success; their chosen role may well be to irritate the majors into better performance. But politics by nature means the willingness to sacrifice one’s own snowy reputation for the sake of the greater good.
Today’s Greens somewhat echo the time its early leader Bob Brown refused to endorse the emissions reduction scheme because it didn’t go far enough.
This time, the party’s big nationally spotlighted bunion was that the party held up critical housing legislation for two years, while prices for construction only got more expensive.
Another big loss to our political discourse is the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather in his seat of Brisbane. He’s an incredibly talented political performer who we credit for almost single handedly putting the housing crisis on the national agenda. This, in the face of countless years of limp calls for reform from so many worthy groups, way too afraid to offend – anyone! (A curse in a time of crisis).
Chandler-Mather backed his ideology with the sacrifice of a huge part of his personal salary to help feed hungry people in his electorate, to the tune of $40,000 he told the National Press Club when asked why he was still a renter despite then being a well paid politician. But this man is young – we expect to see his star rise again.
The Senate has the numbers
But as Jillian Button pointed out the Greens may have lost their heft in the lower house but they will be absolutely needed to pass legislation in the Senate. Which in our mind supplies that irritating third voice that’s essential to good government.
Hopefully, the Greens that remain, and the independents who have grown enormously in this election, will remind the prime minister of the those excellent qualities he implored the nation to honour – kindness, respect and equity.
As for the influence of Trump and his anti environmental policies, on Saturday night, Australia made clear what it thought of that agenda.
Now, on with the job of saving the joint!