The broad ‘progressive’ side of Australia risks drawing all the wrong conclusions from the election - especially about climate and Adani - and it could cost us all dearly.

(A thread /1)

One of the biggest mistakes came when people accepted the implication that Adani/coal = jobs. From the moment that ALP MPs and candidates were being effectively forced to sign pledges to support coal projects because of ‘jobs’, the LNP got a massive boost. /2

Adani, of course, wants to automate its whole endeavour and provide only 1,400 jobs. The right knows this & had been seeking to fight the whole thing as part of a culture war, with coal as a proxy. That was a fight they were doomed to lose. /3

But their biggest boost came when Qld Labor MPs & their backers started agreeing it was all about jobs. All of a sudden, the right could fight on and own the ‘left’s’ terrain. With their pro-Adani pledges & rallies, they signed their party’s death warrant. /4

Some unions could see this, which is why they (correctly) urged that Labor should oppose Adani because it would hasten global warming, and instead make Adani about climate (not jobs) and offer a solid, believable program for alternative jobs and industries. /5

And it is why the whole LNP line about the ‘anti-Adani convoy costing Labor seats’ is complete rubbish. It was Labor itself accepting the right’s terms of argument - shifting it from climate to jobs - that cost them. /6

Worryingly, with all this talk about ‘back to our roots’, it seems Labor is about to swallow the right’s argument hook, line and sinker. Which is bad news if we ever want to tackle global warming and/or change the government. /7

Because the right will please their tax-dodging corporate masters by bankrolling coal from here to our doom. That means these coal communities will always see these same arguments played out. And ‘progressives’ will always lose. /8

The only way out of this cul-de-sac is with a plan for real jobs in new industries located in these coal communities. Let’s build new solar thermal, or put people to work on building new transmission lines in Queensland, or subsidise a new manufacturing plant in these areas. /9

A ‘green new deal’ can be picked up and applied across party lines and can work as well in Melbourne as in Capricornia if it’s believable. But if people within Labor, both MPs and their backers, keep sticking with ‘coal=jobs’, everyone loses. /10

This is, of course, what the #Greens we’re pushing during the election, with a plan for close to 50,000 jobs for Qld, but the election is over and this isn’t a partisan point. It’s about where the non-LNP forces go from here. /11

Unions, activists & organisations are all reflecting now, as it should be. But some hard decisions might need to be made if we want to change the government. Like accepting that a real transition plan is needed for coal exports & that ‘coal=jobs’ just helps the right. /12

We should honour coal workers & communities for everything they have done for our country. It is not their fault their industry is no longer sustainable. But the ‘coal=jobs’ line isn’t just giving these people false hope, it will keep the LNP in government.

(End thread.)