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"Water and Oil" in Mike Kelly's Maiden Speech in Parliament
Posted by Phil Hart on February 18, 2008 - 6:43am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
It has been a good week for peak oil in Australian politics. Andrew MacNamara (ASPO Australia Patron) launched a peak oil policy in Queensland, and Australian Democrat Sandra Kanck proposed a 'peak oil select committee' in the South Australian Legislative Council (although I fear for the motion's chance of success - write to your local member if you're in SA!).
Now, we have our first positive mention of peak oil by a Member of the House of Representatives, with a new MP shining a light for his new Federal Labor Government. With the Green Senators leading the campaign in the Senate, we now have at least positive indications from three of the four main parties. That leaves the Liberal/National Coalition out in the cold - with no advocates for peak oil awareness and no longer in Government anywhere in the country. Perhaps there is a lesson in that?
Below the fold is the relevant extract from Mike Kelly. Welcome to the club Mike!
The Hon Dr Mike Kelly AM, MP, Member for Eden-Monaro (NSW)
First Speech To Parliament - 13/2/2008
"I believe the future of this country will largely be shaped by our response to the challenges posed by two liquids: water and oil. We cannot grow and will find it difficult to sustain our current lifestyle if we do not come up with a major national effort on our water resource management. We must give thought to whether we are selecting the appropriate land usage in tune with our various regions. We should reach out more vigorously to countries like Israel to collaborate on the development of water management and agricultural technology.
With regard to oil, I view the threat posed by the future dependency of this country on overseas and dwindling supplies as a critical strategic vulnerability. I believe we must follow the lead of the Swedes in taking a proactive approach towards eliminating this substance from our economy. The future oil shocks that we are facing will have the greatest impact on communities like Eden-Monaro and, for their sake, I intend to keep this issue in the forefront of our thinking. One of the primary purposes of government is to anticipate future threats and take appropriate risk management measures, so we cannot turn from this challenge."
Read the speech in full or a biography of Mike Kelly. He may even have some oil industry knowledge - while working his way through university, Colonel Michael J. Kelly, AM (BA LLB, PhD) worked as a storeman and packer at an oil refinery!
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Items like this give me hope.
Peak Oil will be a difficult time all around the world. Here in Australia there is a chance that we could weather the storm better than most, but only if we get smart and do the right things.
At last a small hint of Peak Oil awareness in our national asssembly. I hope Mike Kelly really gets on the front foot with this. Kevin Rudd seems like a man who will listen to reason and if he wants bi-partisan support with the Liberals perhaps he will seek it with the Greens as well, known Peak Oil proponents. Good luck Mike, it'll be an uphill battle.
Good luck to Mike Kelly in introducing this into the parliament. Mnay other MPS are aware of Peak Oil but dare not speak its name for risk of being labelled as a econmic heretic. It will be interesting to see how Mike Kelly goes being an MP which will be far more confining than being in the military where people are encouraged to identify risks and threats and speak up about them. The cost of ignoring threats in the military is very high. The cost of ignoring peak oil in the parliament is to keep your job.
The whole speech is worth reading. The challenge for us all, I think, is to get PO on the radar I know, but this speech is also significant for the many other issues raised. At TOD or elsewhere we need to create a "Roll of Honour" to those in the public discourse who are slowly turning "Oil" and anything to do with oil into what we have come to know as a "dog whistle". As soon as the word "Oil" is mentioned in this wide brown land...the automatic response should be "Peak Oil", "Sustainability", "Relocatization"....or any one of perhaps 10 other tags.
If we can achieve that, and speeches such as that made by the honourable member for Eden-Menaro help, then we will have truelly got PO onto the radar.
That's a most impressive speech, it's well worth reading the whole thing. Let's hope he continues to push the issue and isn't deterred by the flat-earth economists.