Greens candidate for Gippsland Dr Malcolm McKelvie has said the first Rudd / Swan Budget fails miserably to meet the urgent challenge of climate change.

"Labor is spending $44 on defence to every $1 to tackle climate change. Yet this is the most urgent issue facing Gippsland, Australia and the globe."

"Rudd and Swan have offered $1 to climate change to every $28 to fossil fuel subsidies. The farce they call ‘clean coal’ is being given $2 to every $1 for renewables research. On top of that the funds to run the Department of Environment have been cut by $50 million from last year.

"As if that’s not evidence enough that the Rudd Government is totally ‘coal-captured’, they have also given 75% of major infrastructure for transport to worsen climate-change by increasing road transport, while the 25% for rail and other non-road transport, a big slab will still go to coal export infrastructure."

"Instead of throwing valuable tax-payers money to a distant fantasy of being able to burn coal cleanly, it should urgently put that money into getting a large scale renewable industry going in the Latrobe valley. This would also ensure secure employment in the growing sector of the industry while helping to clean up the valley’s brown air and health problems.

With the urgent need to tackle climate change, it is inevitable that the coal industry must be phased out. But why have successive governments been unable to deal with the fossil fuel industry? The answer could be that it is a major lobby group with plenty of money.

Further information: Dr Malcolm McKelvie   0417 364 615