Kevin Rudd and Al Gore in video to up pressure on Malcolm Turnbull
Article from: The Australian
Al Gore is no stranger to the internet. George W. Bush once accused him of having claimed to have invented it.
So what better subject for Kevin Rudd to use to launch his new weapon in the never-ending war on Malcolm Turnbull yesterday when the former US vice-president turned climate-change campaigner came to visit the Prime Minister in Sydney.
Soon after Mr Gore left Kirribilli, a video of their chat appeared on the PM's homepage.
The move, aimed at building pressure on Mr Turnbull ahead of the vote on the government climate-change legislation in the Senate next month, is expected to be the first salvo in a new hi-tech assault on the voters in the name of "direct engagement".
The PM is already a Twitter convert who writes his own material. He also has a growing following. As of yesterday he had 179,000 followers, up from 143,000 last Friday and 156,000 on Sunday.
And from this morning, the PM's homepage will feature an interactive blog -- the first will be on climate change -- which will allow direct comments from voters. The PM's office claims Mr Rudd is "personally engaged" with the new technology.
"He sees these new technologies as a tool to directly interact people and spark genuine public debate."
Mr Gore was said to be happy to be the co-star in Mr Rudd's latest foray into new media.
In the video, Mr Gore congratulates Mr Rudd on his climate change stance and says Australians seem to have a high awareness of the continent's susceptibility to global warming.
And Mr Rudd tells Mr Gore that international climate-change negotiators will need a fresh political mandate.
Later at a press conference with the conventional media, Mr Gore said no nation was more vulnerable to the impact of climate change than Australia.
"And no nation has greater renewable energy resources and a greater capacity to develop alternative sources of energy and contribute to a solution for the climate crisis," he said.
Mr Rudd warned that climate-change talks faced a "very rough and bumpy road" ahead of the Copenhagen climate change talks in December.
"There are many obstacles in the way. And as I said recently in L'Aquila at the G8-plus meeting in Italy, our negotiators worldwide are going to need fresh political momentum, a fresh mandate, in order to land an outcome in Copenhagen," he said. "We are going to need action from developed countries, we're going to need action from developing countries, and we're going to need, of course, someone working out the basis of an appropriate deal for the major economies of the world to get a decent outcome for the planet.
"This is serious stuff. The clock is ticking. There is no time to be wasted. It is now less than 150 days until we reach the meeting in Copenhagen."
But Mr Turnbull expressed concern about the impact of the government's looming emissions trading scheme on Australian industry.
"The fact of the matter is that Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme offers Australian industry and Australian jobs much, much less protection than the bill, the Emissions Trading Scheme Bill that has passed the US House of Representatives and coal is a very good example of this," he said.
theaustralian.news.com.au |
