Tag: Under Pressure

The ACT’s climate change minister, Shane Rattenbury, says the territory is under intense pressure to “succumb to the politics” of reaching agreement on the national energy guarantee, even though it doubts the change is in the national interest. Read more “I think this is the great dilemma for the ACT,” Rattenbury told a forum at the Australian National University. “We think there are significant policy issues still to be addressed but we have to survive the politics.” “There’s a strong argument being put that it’s in the national interest for us to deliver an outcome on this.” Rattenbury said the ACT’s decision about whether to support or torpedo the Neg would be a cabinet decision, not a decision he took unilaterally as the relevant portfolio minister. Rattenbury is in an unusual position because he is a Greens MP in a Labor government. Rattenbury said because “people have sought to make some degree of political mischief and legitimise the ACT government’s position” he had taken the decision the territory government needed to own the final position. “I’ll be perfectly blunt about that – I’ve taken the politically rational decision that this will be a cabinet decision, not my decision.” As the decision on the Neg moves to crunch point, Victoria and Queensland have both expressed concerns about having to make a final determination before all the Coalition party-room processes are exhausted in Canberra. Some Turnbull government MPs have flagged crossing the floor. The ACT, Victoria and Queensland all say the Neg’s emissions reduction target of 26% below 2005 levels by 2030 is too low, but internal opposition within the Turnbull government constrains the commonwealth’s ability to offer an alternative at Coag with higher ambition. In an effort to keep the states at the table, the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has offered state ministers a 2024 review of the Neg’s emissions reduction target, and a two-step process before sign-off. The process the commonwealth envisages is in-principle agreement at the first meeting, with final agreement conditional on the states having no concerns on 14 August.

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—One day after the Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity blamed him for the historic plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, former President Barack Obama agreed to stop making stocks tumble. “Sean Hannity has accused me of making the stock market go down,” Obama told reporters on Tuesday morning. “All I have to say is, ‘Guilty as charged.’ ” A visibly chastened Obama said that, at first, he thought that he had gotten away with making the stock market crash, but when he saw Hannity blame him on Fox, “I knew I had been busted.” Obama offered scant explanation for why he had made stocks crash on Monday. “I guess since leaving the White House I haven’t really found enough ways to fill my time, so tanking the stock market seemed like something to do,” he said. “But I know that’s not a good excuse. The fact is, I caused a lot of folks a lot of pain yesterday, and for that I am very, very sorry.” He said that he would “get to work right away” to return stocks to their previously lofty levels. “I made the stock market go down, and, darn it, I can make it go up again,” he said.