Raising Hell: Issue 62: Open Gates, Closed Door Meetings
"You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. [...] We must dare to invent the future." - Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso, 1985
Last week, on a bright Monday morning, members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers from across the Asia Pacific gathered in Adelaide for a three day conference. Part job fair, part networking event and part political confab, the show was geared very much around getting petroleum engineers all on the same page as their ranks thin — a serious problem facing the industry.
I had tried to get media credentials to attend the thing, but the conference was not open to the media — and by extension, the Australian public. Naturally, this made me even more curious about what was going on behind those closed doors. A three-day closed meeting involving a shadowy cabal responsible for making the special sauce that causes climate change? In Adelaide of all places? What’s not suspicious about that?
Thanks to the continuing support of Raising Hell’s generous subscribers I made arrangements — and good thing I did. If the way attendees joked about those protesting the event was any indication, what I found was a three-day conference where the tone shifted between smug self-delusion and a Hobbesian vision of the world by an industry with a 30-year history of attempting to direct the response to climate change in its interests.
If I have time I may publish portions of these conversations over the coming days — or save them up for a larger project. For now, I want to focus on two: the opening address by South Australian Minister for Transport, Energy and Mining Tom Koutsantonis at the conference on Monday, and another speech given later in the week at an oil and gas industry roundtable.
What was remarkable about both was the way they acted as a measure of where current thinking is on climate change among our political leadership. To give you the flavour, here’s how Koutstantonis kicked off his opening address at the conference:
“To the protesters outside, thank you for the common welcome to the delegates and your endorsement of petrochemicals by gluing yourselves to the road — another interesting use of what your industry supplies.”
The rest of the speech did not get much better as Koutsantonis felt comfortable playing to the audience at this closed door meeting. There was the usual praise for companies like Santos and Beach Energy, particularly for their role in public life. In particular Koutsantonis spoke about how “they employ our citizens, they sponsor our social and sporting events, they create business opportunities for our locals” before getting to the real point: money.
For our government and past governments, royalties, wharfage fees paid to our treasury, over four decades have helped us build schools, our hospitals, our roads, build the environment, the economy we have today. And for that, you know, we are grateful.
Koutsantonis was, of course, right about all this — which is why there have been campaigns to treat fossil fuel sponsorship like tobacco sponsorship. What it has also amounted to was an implicit acknowledgement of just how far oil and gas industry interests have bolted themselves ono the machinery of the South Australia state.
From there Koutsanotnis repeated the usual oil and gas industry talking points about how fossil fuel gas can serve as a transition fuel — a line the industry has been using since the 90s. But the interesting part came when talk turned to the future. In almost the same breadth as Koutsantonis recognised that dealing with climate change was “an absolutely necessary change” that meant “we must change to fast decarbonise the world”, he then said:
“Anyone who knows me, and those knows the policy of present and past Labor governments, knows we are not advocates for banning oil and gas. If anything we are proponents for exploration of oil and gas. Rather than locking the gate, or shutting the gate, we will continue to find ways to open the door.”
He then provided the reasoning for this a few moments later:
“Beyond energy generation, there is still manufacturing processes that are yet to find alternatives to replace oil and gas. Those jobs matter. We can't just end them. In some cases, they may still be years, if not decades away from finding a solution to this challenge. They need us. They rely on us. So do those communities. You cannot abandon them.”
It was an interesting rhetorical move. The same feigned concern for coal industry workers was now being ported across to the oil and gas industry. But a few moments later, it got better when he also stressed the need for change:
I'm aware there is talk in your industry and the Kodak moment for this industry. And that is a good thing. Your long term business plans, if they are to succeed, you need to align your future with a global energy transition.
Which is it? Do we need to end fossil fuels, or can we keep burning them forever?
Overall the speech clearly was intended as a bad news sandwich to a friendly audience; good news at the top and bottom to soften the body blow in-between. Alone it would not be remarkable, except that a few days later Koutsantonis went off-script while giving a second speech to an oil and gas industry roundtable event at the Adelaide wine centre on Thursday. After the event was disrupted by Extinction Rebellion activists, the minister admitted the activists were “having an impact” before he warned the sector that the people would come for them with pitchforks as the price would rise. Yet in the next breath Koutsantonis said he was proud of his efforts to take more oil and gas out of the ground.
What this reveals is the deep cognitive dissonance among South Australia’s political leadership and a measure of the oil and gas industry’s influence. A confident leadership who fully understood the existential threat posted by climate change would not feel the need to toast the success of those responsible. Compare, for instance, Koutsantonis’ remarks to those of UN General Secretary António Guterres who in June said: "we seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel producers and financiers have humanity by the throat."
The existential threat of climate change is the biggest story of our time; it is also the most significant class issue today. What is needed right now are programs to electrify public housing, to ban new gas connections and to ensure those on the lower end on the income spectrum have access to rooftop solar — policies that South Australian Labor has so far refused to embrace. Meanwhile, as flood warnings have been issued across the entire state of New South Wales and torrential rain downs the eastern seaboard, the industry can rest comfortably knowing its interests were well taken care of — over a round of golf, no less.
For the Fortnight: October 12 to October 25
Reporting In
Where I recap what I’ve been doing this last fortnight so you know I’m not just using your money to stimulate the local economy …
***LIVE SHOW!*** ***UPDATED*** Due to the untimely demise of the monarch this the talk organised by Unley City Library had to be postponed. Do not worry, however, as this just means more time to buy tickets. Details below!
‘‘South Australia won’t supply gas to NSW during shortages, minister warns” (Guardian Australia, 21 October 2022).
‘‘Australian research finds cost-effective way to recycle solar panels” (Guardian Australia, 16 October 2022).
‘‘Australian fuel prices likely to rise as Opec+ countries cut oil production to ‘squeeze the market” (Guardian Australia, 15 October 2022).
‘‘Steinway, then the highway: national piano competition forced to flee Shepparton floods” (Guardian Australia, 14 October 2022).
‘‘Electric vehicles just 3.39% of new Australian car sales despite sharp increase, report says” (Guardian Australia, 14 October 2022).
‘‘Australian airlines to continue to allow luggage trackers after Lufthansa bans devices” (Guardian Australia, 12 October 2022).
“Medibank hack: what do we know about the data breach, and who is at risk?” (Guardian Australia, 25 October 2022).
You Hate To See It
A dyspeptic, snark-ridden and highly ironic round-up of the news from our shared hellscape…
Well That’s One Way To Do It
As world leaders rattle the nuclear sabre, one group of Ukrainians — faced with the prospect of a nuclear strike, or the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Vladimir Putin’s Russia — have eschewed spending their final hours huddled in a bunker by responding in a novel way: registering to take part in a 15k person outdoor orgy. When their final hour comes, registered participants are being asked to make their way to a dedicated place with their hands with coloured stripes to signal their pleasure preference — three stripes for anal sex, four for oral sex — strip naked and greet oblivion comingled together in a writhing mass of flesh. By coincidence, all apartments within view of the planned site have mysteriously been taken off the market.
Murder, She Wrote
If the world doesn’t blink out of existence in nuclear Armageddon, the human species may end up being murdered by rogue sentient sex robots. Raytheon, the inventors of the knife missile, is almost certainly building sentient battle mechs, but Deakin University’s Dr Nick Patterson has raised alarm over the potential for sex robots to be hacked used to murder their owner/lover. Throw sentient AI into the mix and it’s not hard to imagine how this might get out of hand given the army of robotic devices humans have built to satisfy our wants are already spying on you.
There But For The Grace Of God Goes Ye
Kanye West is buying up social media website Parler — and things are going about as smoothly as you might expected. Like Gab or Rumble, Parler belongs to the ecosystem of right-wing social media
griftsstart-ups that promised its userbase an escape the rank, liberal-progressive infested platforms like Twitter with all their rules about not being racist and homophobic and whatnot. Parler was a platform where anything was supposed to go — or as one commentator put it: “a cesspit of racism and hate”. When breaking the news that the rapper — legally known as “Ye” — was taking over the platform, Parler’s management naturally handled it with the grace and professionalism you would expect: accidentally CCing its entire userbase into an email intended for 300+ verified users and investors. Like a stone dropped in a pond, the incident sparked a ripple effect that became an email tsunami as people began immediately began trolling by hitting “reply all” and roasting those responsible for the cock up.What Housing Crisis?
Real estate agents in Queensland are advising landlords to jack up rents by more than 20% and students living away from home struggling to pay the rent are resorting to hiring others to do their assignments for them, but the housing affordability crisis isn’t that bad is it? If you’re renting and looking to get into the property market, you can still find rare bargains. Take, for example, this literal smoking ruin spotted by South Australian author Jennifer Mills going for a cool $470k. Sure it might be a bit of a fixer-upper, but do you really want to rent for the rest of your life?
I Do Not Recall
Residents around Mount Gambier in South Australia were treated on Friday to free coffee in a new initiative between the Mount Gambier Marketplace and the fine, upstanding members of the local constabulary. The community-building effort, Coffee with a Cop, offers free coffee so local residents can “discuss community issues, ask questions and get to know a little more about our local cops and police work in the area” — no bookings required. Even if this is sincere (and not some sort of bait-and-switch set up to catch crims), the marketing copy was silent on whether an overworked member of the public defenders office will be present to stop you from dry snitching on yourself or your loved ones.
Failing Upward
Where we recognise and celebrate the true stupidity of the rich, powerful and influential…
Name one thing you can remember about Scott Morrison. Actually, name three. If they don’t include “globalisation mastermind”, “controlling natural disasters” and “calm decisiveness”, then we here at Raising Hell’s elite satire unit just don’t know what to tell ya, bud. Scott Morrison, probably one of the most useless Australian politicians to move into Kirribilli House and a man who secretly took over multiple ministries is now finding a second life on the right-wing corporate pep talk circuit. The former PM is now exclusively represented by the World Wide Speakers Group alongside former US Vice-President Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich and a host of other weirdos who have never done anything wrong ever. If you’re interested in having the MP for Cook expound on his insights into globalisation and climate change from the backbench, check his availability today.
Good Reads, Good Times
To share the love, here are some of the best or more interesting reads from the last fortnight…
Here is a fun Twitter thread by Brandon Bradford talking about the basic assumptions at the heart of modern conservatism.
Rebecca Solnit writing about climate despair is an important, but should also be pared with Barbara Ehrenreich talking about positive thinking.
Rick Morton in The Saturday Paper on what happened to the Bureau of Meteorology is an important read, as is Graham Readfern in The Guardian on how the BOM was banned from saying the words “climate change”.
Before You Go (Go)…
Are you a public sector bureaucrat whose tyrannical boss is behaving badly? Have you recently come into possession of documents showing some rich guy is trying to move their ill-gotten-gains to Curacao? Did you take a low-paying job with an evil corporation registered in Delaware that is burying toxic waste under playgrounds? If your conscience is keeping you up at night, or you’d just plain like to see some wrong-doers cast into the sea, we here at Raising Hell can suggest a course of action: leak! You can securely make contact through Signal or through encrypted message Wickr Me on my account: rorok1990. Alternatively you can send us your hard copies to: PO Box 134, Welland SA 5007
And if you’ve come this far, consider supporting me further by picking up one of my books, leaving a review or by just telling a friend about Raising Hell!