Green Wombat

Green Wombat has been holidaying in Australia for the past couple weeks, observing the Schwarzenegger Effect on state politics. Just like the Republican California governor trumped pro-environment Democrats by embracing global warming legislation and other environmental laws backed by Silicon Valley’s tech titans, Australia’s conservative politicos are starting to play the green card. The long-entrenched Labor Party government in New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state whose capital is Sydney – has called an election for March. In recent weeks, left-leaning Labor has found itself battered by the right-wing Liberal Party on environmental issues. The pro-business New South Wales Liberal leader has promised, if elected, to cancel a controversial coal mine slated for the central coast that locals fear could contaminate the region’s water supply – prompting area enviros to urge a vote for the Liberal candidate in the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, conservatives have challenged plans to build temporary desalinization plants on some beaches rather than encourage greater water conservation as Australia endures its worst drought in memory. The Libs have also pledged to dramatically expand a state program to subsidize urban residential rainwater tanks. Standard-issue in dry rural areas, the tanks collect rain – nearly all of which percent runs off into the ocean – to flush toilets, water gardens and supplement drinking water. The national Liberal Party, which controls the federal government in a conservative coalition, is decidedly brown on green issues. But as global warming and other environmental issues come to dominate the Australian consciousness and appear on the corporate agenda, savvy state conservatives, like their California  counterpart, see an electoral payoff in out-greening the greens.