Politics

Alan Jones Reckons The Election Result Means We Can Relax About Climate Change

"I believe in the scoreboard!

by Sam Langford  18 May 2019
Alan Jones

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Old White Man With Opinions Alan Jones was invited to have some opinions on the 7 News election panel tonight, and he’s had a lovely old time pontificating on the surprising result. His takeaway from the Coalition’s surprising success? That we…don’t need to worry about climate change anymore.

That’s not exactly surprising for Alan Jones, whose contribution to the discourse on climate change includes the time he flew over the Great Barrier Reef and declared it seems “fine”, and the time, just last week, that he helpfully tried to explain climate change with a bag of rice.

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Tonight, though, here’s what he had to say on the topic. After fellow panellist, Labor MP Chris Bowen, asked “what is the Morrison government going to do on Monday if it is elected?”, Jones jumped in to cheerfully point out that “well, we won’t have to have a 50 percent renewable energy target, that’s for sure!”

“We know you don’t believe in climate change, Alan,” Bowen shot back. “With respect, I do. So okay, we differ there.”

“Well, it was a vote on climate change tonight!” Jones continued, as if the federal election was literally just a vote on whether climate change exists. “You said it was a referendum on climate change, but apart from Zali Steggall, I mean, you people can’t persist with this notion of 45 percent emissions reductions or a 50 percent renewable energy target.”

“Alan, one of the differences between you and I is that I believe in climate change, and I believe it’s caused by human activity,” Bowen said again.

“Well I believe in the scoreboard!” Jones responded, pointing at the election results. “Have a look at the scoreboard!”

He then returned to the same kind of nonsense he was pushing in his bag of rice analogy: the (flawed) idea that Australia’s contribution to climate change is simply too small for us to bother to do anything.

“You tried to convince people that carbon dioxide was a problem, but it’s only 0.4 percent of the atmosphere, Australia creates 1.3 percent of .3 percent — you want to reduce that and turn the economy on its head? Give me a break.”

It seems the only way Alan Jones will ever go green is in his choice of election night fashion. I don’t mind the jacket, to be honest, though word on Twitter is that people are not impressed.