ACF releases final election scorecard.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has released the final version of its election scorecard and will spend the days until polling day letting Australians know where the political parties stand on climate change and on protecting land, water and wildlife.
ACF’s scorecard rating political parties’ environmental policies out of 100 points gives the Liberal/National coalition 14 (up from 11 a month ago), Labor 62 (up from 53), the Greens 95 (up from 77), Nick Xenophon Team 54 and Glenn Lazarus Team 71.
“With election day just days away it might be too late for us to get the parties to change their policies, but it’s not too late for us to let Australians know where the parties stand,” said ACF’s CEO Kelly O’Shanassy.
“This week we will contact our 300,000 email subscribers and 120,000 Facebook followers to let them know the final scorecard results.
“On election day we will text the scorecard results to more than 50,000 people. We are also running online and print ads.
“ACF volunteers doorknocking in the Liberal seat of Kooyong on the weekend report that most Liberal voters are way ahead of the party when it comes to climate change.
“Our volunteers also report high levels of concern about global warming in Deakin in Melbourne’s east and the Queensland seats of Brisbane, Moreton, Ryan and Petrie.
“The Liberal/National Coalition is the only political group on our scorecard that comes in under 50 – and its mark of 14 is well below a pass.
“It’s unacceptable for the incumbent government to run a small target strategy on climate change – the biggest issue facing our nation,” Ms O’Shanassy said.
“In a year when 93 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef has been affected by coral bleaching – a direct result of warmer than usual waters – voters expect the people who want to represent them in Parliament to have strong plans to get Australia off coal, onto renewables and to make our energy systems much more efficient.”
ACF arrived at the scores by measuring parties’ policies on clean energy, cutting pollution and protecting nature against the tests set out in ACF’s National Agenda.
