Images: News Corp, The Age, Daily Telegraph, Financial Review

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth,” so wrote George Orwell in his dystopian classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Even Orwell would have been gobsmacked by what’s happened in the years since.

Gaslighting, whataboutism, shoot-the-messenger and straw man arguments are now part of the everyday inventory of commentators gifted a pulpit to preach and a certain, ill-gotten ‘credibility’ by media moguls led by, but not confined to, members of the Murdoch family. That and the sheer volume of highly regimented messaging pumped out by corporate media renders free market ‘Newspeak’ pervasive.

So pervasive, in fact, that history, and reality itself, is alterable.

In Nineteen Eighty-four, Orwell wrote that “Oceania was at war with Eastasia; Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” It was a lie successfully inculcated upon the masses by Oceania’s Party overlords.

Likewise, the Federal Government and its News Corp overlords want you to forget they scare-mongered against measures aimed at net zero carbon emissions, preferring to reinvent themselves as patrons of an environmentally-friendly “Mission Zero”, launched under News Corp mastheads across Australia on Monday. Never mind the inconvenient reportage below (top row); it never happened:

News Corp and the government have their work cut out to erase memories of their net zero recalcitrance, but if anyone can pull it off it’s this lot. The 16-page wraparound was textbook public relations: “For decades the issue of climate change has bedevilled Australian governments on both sides of politics,” it began.

“It has led to the downfall of at least two prime ministers and been used as a political dagger by the hard left and a political battering ram by the hard right. Today we are putting an end to all of that so we can put Australia on a path to a net zero future that will not just benefit the environment but benefit our economy, create jobs and save households money.”

Oddly enough, the News Corp outlets forgot to mention their own role in the downfall of those prime ministers (Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull) both of whom were eviscerated in outlets like the Daily Telegraph and the Courier Mail for working to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

But that was then and this is now: all of a sudden, if we’re to believe “Mission Zero”, net zero emissions aren’t a job-destroying cave to the globalists anymore. Now, orange-clad tradies can go “green and gold”, reinventing themselves in an economy of innovation that is very much “putting Australia first”.

You’ll notice there’s a certain regimented message discipline about Monday’s front pages if you take a look at them (bottom row, above). That’s the kind of opinion-shaping, memory-erasing, reality-defining power wielded by News Corp, which commands more than 70 per cent of Australia’s newsprint circulation.

Orwell would be suitably impressed.

Many feel that News Corp’s backflip on climate is itself a con. Flowery optimism notwithstanding, The Guardian’s Ketan Joshi points out the “Mission Zero” campaign repeats many of the same climate-delay talking points and corporate ‘greenwashing’ that News Corp typically employs.

“‘The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow … some energy experts believe we will still need gas- and coal-fired power to keep the lights on 24/7’ (News Corp outlets continue to proclaim). That’s severely disconnected from the modern realities of electricity generation, in which zero carbon grids are theoretically understood and practically getting closer every day,” he wrote.

Australia will need a massive, as-yet-unaddressed, increase in electric cars and renewable power to meet the UN’s call to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but there’s no pressure to produce in these sectors from “Mission Zero”. The International Energy Agency (IEA) wants an end to coal power by 2030, a target Australia has no hope of achieving with current strategies, yet there’s no motivational rocket from “Mission Zero”.

In May, the IEA released a pathway to global net zero by 2050 which, perhaps not surprisingly, excludes as legitimate components of any national plan (i) sketchy carbon offsets and, wait for it, (ii) technology that hasn’t been invented yet! The government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison relies heavily on such flimflammery to give the appearance it’s working hard to reduce emissions, yet “Mission Zero” offers no criticism and fails to offer many alternatives.

Like most glossy mission statements, “Mission Zero” seems to be largely an exercise in empty rhetoric. Within 48 hours of its launch, the Herald Sun ran an ad from the right wing, Institute of Public Affairs-linked ‘Climate Study Group’, describing climate change as a “furphy”.

PLEASE HELP US CONTINUE TO THRIVE BY BECOMING AN OFFICIAL FOOTYOLOGY PATRON. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

Old habits die hard, it seems. Is anyone surprised?


Cartoon: David Rowe, Financial Review

So why did News Corp launch this plainly-hollow campaign? Andrew Bolt, of all people, might have given the game away when he described the campaign as “rubbish” which provides political cover for Morrison.

“Morrison will actually be delighted because he can now have the Malcolm Turnbull-type policy that he wants – net zero emissions – and take it to the next big global warming conference in Glasgow in November, knowing that he has the backing of the Murdoch media,” Bolt thundered.

But the devil is in the detail of News Corp’s campaign – or in this case, the lack of virtually any detail at all. Joshi believes it’s a form of gaslighting which – to remind the reader – is when your perception of reality is twisted for another’s gain.

“The real tell will come when both organisations come up against a policy that might actually result in real, immediate and significant emissions reductions in line with global climate targets. I can guess how they’ll respond: they’ll revert back to baring their teeth,” he tweeted.

So, cover for Canberra without any actual substance. If that’s not peak Scott Morrison, what is?

Morrison will have to put something approximating meat on the bones of his climate policy when it’s announced next week, mapping out how he plans to get us to net zero by 2050, and get us away from coal dependence (if he dares – there’s a few seats on the line and a few donors he’ll displease) among other difficult goals.

The new policy will come into sharp focus whether or not Morrison fronts up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, at the end of the month.

Once the plan is revealed, Morrison will have to placate the National Party, his major fossil fuel donors, and the commentators who deliver him the hard right wing of his LNP-voting base (see Andrew Bolt, above).

He’ll also have to convince the electorate at large that he’s fair dinkum about tackling climate change. After years of climate obfuscation that won’t be easy.

Already there are grumblings. Casting himself as the sidelined truth teller, News Corp firebrand Bolt bleated that, “My whole company’s against me.”

“You should worry when big business, big media, big government, they all get into bed like this,” he bemoaned.

Interviewed on the ABC, Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie signalled her opposition by calling claims renewable energy would be a boon for regional Australia a “mirage”. Pointing to the low number of jobs created at one solar farm in regional NSW, she asked: “Do you know how many jobs are there right now? Five. And they’re mostly mowing the lawn under the panels.”

How does Morrison plan to placate the Nationals and fossil fuel donors? By buying them off, of course.

In the first plank of Morrison’s net zero ‘bargain with Barnaby’ (Joyce), which was revealed on Wednesday night, at least $3 billion has been earmarked for an inland rail line from Queensland’s Surat Basin to the port of Gladstone. The purpose of that rail line: increased coal exports, meaning more global emissions subsidised by Canberra.

It’s almost like Morrison’s not serious about climate change, isn’t it?

As for Bolt and the hard right LNP base, Morrison has little to fear. The ‘conflict’ between Sky News commentators and “Mission Zero” wraparounds is little more than a cabaret; on past occasions, Bolt’s performative right-wing purity has, after an initial flurry, been largely devoid of attacks on Morrison himself.

What is Bolt going to do: abandon his LNP co-dependence and exhort a rusted-on right wing audience to elect Anthony Albanese? That’s not on the cards.

Morrison’s biggest challenge will be to convince swinging voters his climate change epiphany is real, despite serious doubts that he’s all sell and no substance, despite fresh memories of his holding up a lump of coal in Parliament, and despite his deputy’s announcing $3 billion in subsidies for coal exports as recently as Wednesday this week.

To pull that off, the PM will need a bailout from News Corp’s “Mission Zero” cavalry; Orwell on steroids, if you will.

If anyone can pull it off, it’s this lot.