Baz spruiks fossil fuels at Vatican climate summit

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Here's what we published this week:

Opinion

Someone, please invade Perth

There’s bugger all to show for Western Australia’s big budget surplus, aside from on the spreadsheet.

The Last Place on EarthJesse Noakes

News

‘Forgotten’ Pilbara town waits for promised hospital as another budget passes by

The state government can rely on the Pilbara region to bring in iron ore royalties, but can Pilbara residents rely on the government for health care?

The Last Place on EarthGerard Mazza

Curtin camp remains as uni holds closed-door talks on pro-Palestinian demands

Two weeks into their occupation, students say they’re determined to stay put.

The Last Place on EarthGerard Mazza

Podcast

PODCAST: Iron ore (What is it good for?)

Western Australians have been promised electricity credits from both state and federal government in the past fortnight - but what do we really have to show for all those iron ore royalties?

The Last Place on EarthJesse Noakes

The West

Our friends at The West Australian ran a genuinely funny front-page headline on Friday: 'The Pope Meets Basil'. It was positioned above a pontiff-free photo of 7 West employee, Perth Lord Mayor, and Liberal candidate for Churchlands Basil Zempilas. The story on page 11 said Zempilas had travelled to the Vatican for, of all things, a climate change summit. Of course, the 'woke Pope' Francis has been vocal in sounding the alarm on the climate emergency. Baz, meanwhile, likes to talk up the City of Perth's role in the energy transition, but always seems to bring it back to the importance of the gas industry, which his 7 West boss Kerry Stokes has a significant stake in. During a panel discussion at the summit, Zempilas reportedly said that opportunities for Perth's energy transition were presented by fossil fuel giants Woodside and Chevron having offices in the city. "Both of those particularly big players in our city acknowledge the work the City of Perth has done in leading energy transition conversations,” he told The West. There must be a special circle of hell reserved for those who blaspheme at the Vatican by casting climate sinners as saints. Maybe one modelled on how the Perth Hills will look in 10 years time during a peak summer heatwave?

The rest

The Last Place on Earth had a lot to say about budgets this week, but Michael West Media reminded us of 'The Other Budget'. According to a new pre-print, the world has about 150 billion tonnes of CO2 left in the carbon budget for a 50% likelihood of staying below 1.5 degrees of warming.

And, while we're on the crunching of climate figures, the Australia Institute said this week that fossil fuel subsidies from all levels of government in Australia increased 31% in 2023-24.

After triumphantly announcing in her 'Future Gas Strategy' last week that Labor would continue doing what it has done all along (let gas companies do whatever they want), Member for Brand and Minister for Resources Madeleine King faced a bit of mild backlash (ABC) from some in her own party. Perhaps that partly accounts for the setback she faced this week. The Greens secured a deal (The Guardian) that caused Labor to put on hold a plan to let the Resources Minister override the Environment Minister regarding First Nations consultation on offshore gas.

On the topic of Labor turning on itself: Anthony Albanese took issue (ABC) with a Senator from WA using the pro-Palestinian slogan 'From the river to the sea'. After rebuke from inside and outside of her own party, Senator Fatima Payman told The Guardian the phrase she'd used expressed "a desire for Palestinians to live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominating others nor being dominated over". It's hard to see why a founding member of Parliamentary Friends of Palestine like Albanese would find that "not appropriate".

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