Even blind Freddie can see that the Crisafulli government is paying only lip service to its so-called commitment to net zero. No sooner had Murray Watt landed significant environment reform which had been in limbo for five years, Crisafulli finds reason to criticise it because Watt was able to find common ground with the Greens by compromising on some issues but maintaining the essentials of Labor’s plan.

As Watt pointed out the Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young negotiated with maturity and in good faith until a deal could be reached and Greens leader Larissa Waters then sealed the agreement.

The Coalition, on the other hand, were hoping to push it into the new year by sending a hotch-potch of MPs each bringing their own amendments, making it difficult for Watt to decide where they stood. Now Crisafulli laments because his colleagues at the federal level dealt themselves out of the equation by simply playing politics.

Actions speak louder than words. Crisafulli has repealed Queensland’s 2030, 2032 and 2035 renewable energy targets and quashed renewable energy investment He is now happy to keep increasingly unreliable coal power stations on expensive life support.

It is apparent that the Coalition have learned nothing from their huge electoral defeat in May. The climate-denying voices of Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce still echo down the years as the federal opposition now rejects net zero. They may continue to obfuscate and play with the theme of ‘not now, maybe later’, but as history has shown in their heart of hearts, they do not want a bar of anything that may detract from their fossil fuel donors who support them.

Scott Morrison began the rot this time by saying a target pledge is just ideology. But having no target is like giving students an assignment with an open timeline to complete it. Targets and timelines motivate and even if you don’t reach them, you’ll achieve a lot more than you would without them.

The Coalition can continue living in a world of bluff and trying to muddy the waters but the train has left the station for the deniers of anthropogenic climate change. The coming of the Teals has underlined that most Australians do not want the wool pulled over their eyes anymore.