Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently told shock jock Alan Jones that wind-farms are “visually awful and make a lot of noise.” This was essentially an endorsement of Rupert Murdoch’s comment last year that “we shouldn’t be building windmills and all that rubbish”.  Abbott then went on to proudly proclaim to Jones that he had “reduced the renewable energy target” and added that he would have liked to reduce the number of wind-farms by a “lot more”.

After allowing his environment minister, Greg Hunt, to agree on a target with Labor he is now is patently wishing he could walk away from the issue. This will do little to encourage certainty in the business community.

Yet Abbott’s retreat on forward-looking responses to climate change should not come as a surprise. After the indecisive federal election in 2010, he told Member for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott, “If you believe in climate change, go with the other mob”.

It seems that on this all-important issue Abbott has never ever had his heart in it at all.

Frank Carroll

Labor’s five candidates for National President all strongly endorse substantial reform to make the Labor Party more open and democratic, according to a survey conducted by ALP reform groups.

In answers to questions posed by Local Labor and Open Labor and published on the groups’ websites, the candidates almost universally support a greater say for members in votes for Lower and Upper House candidates, national and state conferences and party presidents.

Candidates also broadly support trials of community preselection ballots and granting members of affiliated unions automatic ALP membership and voting rights, in exchange for the end of bloc union votes.

They also favour the introduction of community organisers in all state and territory ALP branches, a code of ethical conduct for party offices and changes to membership registration to prevent fraudulent applications.

ALP members have until June 12 to vote for the president from among five candidates: Mark Butler, Jane Garrett, Tim Hammond, Henry Pinskier and Louise Pratt.

Local Labor National Convenor Stuart Whitman and Open Labor Spokesman Tom Bentley said they were delighted that the candidates had strongly backed the reform agenda proposed by Open Labor and Local Labor.

“Two months from a National Conference that will make vital decisions on party reform, it’s good to see that the next party president will be a champion of giving more power to party members and strengthening connections between Labor branches and their local communities,” Stuart Whitman said.

“Pressure for reform is growing, and it gives Bill Shorten a great opportunity to join the list of leaders who helped to rebuild and renew Labor from opposition,” said Tom Bentley.

Full responses to the survey, including qualifying comments from candidates, are available to download here.