{"id":7001,"date":"2020-11-14T05:33:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T05:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/?p=138974"},"modified":"2020-11-14T05:33:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T05:33:02","slug":"trumps-loss-leaves-scomo-out-in-the-cold-in-a-warming-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/11\/14\/trumps-loss-leaves-scomo-out-in-the-cold-in-a-warming-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Loss Leaves ScoMo Out In The Cold In A Warming World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DON’T MISS ANYTHING! ONE CLICK TO GET NEW MATILDA DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX, FREE!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump\u2019s tumultuous tenure as President of the United States has come to a predictably tumultuous end, writes James Devenish.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last four years has seen the US pull out of some of the world\u2019s most important treaties and international organisations, from the Paris Climate Accords to the Iran Nuclear Deal to the World Health Organisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thorough destabilisation of the world order has emboldened some of the most dangerous authoritarian leaders to, without consequence, carry out actions that would have been unthinkable under any other administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s crown prince Mohamad Bin Salman authorised the murder<\/a> of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a foreign embassy; Russia put bounties<\/a> on the heads of American and British military personal fighting in Afghanistan; and China has impeded the sovereignty of Hong Kong and is committing an ongoing genocide<\/a> against Muslims in Xinjiang province. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst the chaos of Trump\u2019s foreign policy, Scott Morrison was able to walk the line and remain in Trump\u2019s good books. Whilst the Coalition government has regularly condemned human rights abuses and stood on the side of democracy, there is an uncomfortable truth sitting at the heart of why Scott Morrison and Donald Trump had such a good relationship where other world leaders did not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scott Morrison, holidaying in Hawaii during an unprecedented bushfire crisis in Australia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both Morrison and Trump are cut from the same populist, nationalist and ideological cloth. Australian political culture permits only the \u2018friendly bloke next door\u2019 sort of nationalism that ‘Scomo’ embodies, but the threat is no less real \u2013 especially when it comes to climate change policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Trump administration, our PM could use the shield that his big brother provided to be \u201cloose with the truth<\/a>\u201d when it came to Australia\u2019s climate plans. Morrison has refused to commit to long-term emission reduction targets, stopped providing money for the global climate fund and was inexplicably absent<\/a> from the UN climate action summit last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At summits that Australia did attend, we were accused<\/a> of cheating by using accounting tricks to meet emissions targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the failure of the 2019 Madrid summit to reach global consensus, one of the architects of the Paris Climate Accords said Australia\u2019s actions showed our government was willing to \u201cdestroy the whole Paris agreement<\/a>\u201d. All this in the midst of one of the most destructive bushfire seasons on record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Donald Trump begins the long march into the annals of history, the Coalition government is going to have to face a world more motivated than ever to commit to effective and reformative climate change policies. No longer will Scott Morrison have the shield of the US alliance to hide behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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US president-elect, Joe Biden, pictured in January this year. (IMAGE: Phil Roeder, Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President-elect Joe Biden came to power on a platform of transformational climate change action. In an interview<\/a> before the election, Biden went so far as to say that it would be him <\/em>that would hold progressive climate groups to account for their demands and not the other way around. The next US administration is serious about the threat of climate change \u2013 whilst our government plainly is not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fracture between the Democrats and Australia\u2019s climate change policies has been noted by major forces within the party. In a speech<\/a> last year in Melbourne, former Democratic secretary of state John Kerry, in a thinly-veiled swipe at the Coalition government, said \u201cwe just can\u2019t sit on our asses and leave the political process to Neanderthals who don\u2019t want to believe in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great history of American and Australian mateship that Scott Morrison talked of when hosted by Donald Trump at The White House will be put at a crossroads in the next four years. If the Morrison government continues to act as a global disruptor on climate action, Australia will become isolated and placed on the global sidelines along with dictators, despots and other environmental truthers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ‘quiet Australians’ that Scott Morrison says he represents have been screaming for meaningful action that will prevent a summer like 2019 from ever again occurring. As an incoming US President joins that chorus, it is essential that the government listens and leaves the era of Trumpism where it belongs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The post Trump\u2019s Loss Leaves ScoMo Out In The Cold In A Warming World<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on New Matilda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s tumultuous tenure as President of the United States has come to a predictably tumultuous end, writes James Devenish. The last four years has seen the US pull out of some of the world\u2019s most important treaties and international organisations, from the Paris Climate Accords to the Iran Nuclear Deal to the World Health […]<\/p>\n

The post Trump\u2019s Loss Leaves ScoMo Out In The Cold In A Warming World<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":637,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1964,1968],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7002,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001\/revisions\/7002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}