Malcolm Turnbull’s failure to get his party to adopt a strong policy on climate change is something he now appears to wear as a mark of pride – like a battle scar, showing how he’s fought for the cause.
“I am absolutely committed to achieving a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to ward off unsafe global warming,” he reminded thousands of millennials and others during his Facebook-broadcast debate with Bill Shorten on 17 June.
“I have paid some heavy prices over the years, as you probably know, for my commitment to the climate change challenge.”
He was speaking, of course, about his rise and fall as leader of the Liberal party while in opposition in 2009 – a battle that was fought primarily over Turnbull’s support for an emissions trading scheme.
His eventual return as leader – and as prime minister – in 2015 appeared to most to be accomplished on the basis of a commitment to support the party’s current climate policies, which he once harshly derided.
It is fitting then, that in his own electorate of Wentworth, activists are rubbing salt in his climate change-induced wound. Groups from around the country have piled into Sydney’s glitzy eastern suburbs electorate, raising awareness of Turnbull’s current climate change policies, or lack thereof, and simultaneously trying to make Turnbull aware of his constituents’ views on climate change.
And views they have. However, Wentworth, it seems, is an electorate full of incongruent qualities.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Turnbull’s electorate is rich. It has the highest house prices of any electorate in Australia. Harbourside mansions – like Turnbull’s own in Point Piper – push the median house price up to about $2.5m.
Fitting with those prices, Wentworth has remained a safe non-Labor seat, held by conservative politicians since federation. And Turnbull is not the first Liberal leader to hold the seat, with John Hewson representing Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs crowd back in the 1990s.
More surprisingly, however, the electorate can also be very progressive – putting the small “l” back in Liberal.
Take the Greens vote. In 2011 they got a healthy 17.4% of the primary vote. That dropped to a more modest but still respectable 14.6% when Turnbull, who grew up in the area and is known by many residents, ran in 2013.
And when those voters are asked about what they think about environmental issues, they support positions that are much more progressive than those of the current Liberal party.
In April a ReachTel survey commissioned by renewable energy campaigners Solar Citizens found 63.5% of Wentworth voters would be more likely to vote for a party that promised to take Australia to 100% renewable energy within 15 years.
And perhaps even more surprisingly, according to leftwing activist group GetUp, Wentworth is where it has its highest density of members anywhere in the country. People there sign GetUp’s petitions on issues like marriage equality, renewable energy and asylum seekers in droves.
And now, tugging at the loose threads left by the chafing of these incongruent qualities is a cabal of environment groups, hoping to find leverage among the small “l” liberals of Wentworth.
Buoyed by the finding that a healthy majority of Wentworthians would be swayed by a policy that quickly shifted Australia to 100% renewable energy, Solar Citizens held a public meeting in Paddington Town Hall on 8 June.
“We had 500 people there,” says Claire O’Rourke, national director of Solar Citizens. “That was the biggest event we’ve ever held.”
Despite Wentworth’s enthusiasm for solar, they’re the second-worst electorate in the country in terms of uptake of the technology, according to Solar Citizens. Out of the 150 federal electorates, the group says Wentworth is ranked 149, with just 2,352 voters living under solar-adorned roofs.
“To see 500 people in an electorate that has the second-lowest proportional uptake of solar was really encouraging,” says O’Rourke.
One thing holding back the uptake of solar in the electorate is not the will of the people but the way they live. Crowded alongside the harbourside mansions and eastern beaches are stacks of apartment blocks, each trying to peer over the other to catch a glimpse of Sydney’s glistening harbour and ocean.
There are so many apartments, that Wentworth is Australia’s second-most dense electorate. And current renewable energy policies don’t make it easy for renters or even apartment owners to get solar energy.
Since that Solar Citizens meeting, other groups have been bombarding the Turnbull’s electorate with climate-change related messaging.
GetUp produced posters to hijack Turnbull’s own messaging in the electorate. Strapped to street poles beneath the prime minister’s head and shoulders were posters with the rest of his body. They said “trust me on climate change” and have Turnbull’s fingers crossed.
The group even made a video of two women running around installing the posters – labelled “Guerilla Nannas” by Getup.
“We know these are people who care about climate and the environment and who wanted and thought they were getting a prime minister in Turnbull that would deliver,” says Sam Register, head of campaigns at GetUp.
GetUp has also been working with Sydney artist Michael Agzarian, who produced the now-famous “fizza” posters of a dazed-looking Malcolm Turnbull, roughly in the style of the Obama “hope” posters.
Adding a twist to the original posters, Agzarian produced specific “climate change fizza” posters, complete with rising sea levels drowning Turnbull’s face and bleached coral in the background.
“We wanted to make sure that he knows that his electorate cares about climate and they demand better – no matter who they vote for this is an issue they care about,” says Register.
The “fizza” posters are hitting a sore point. Polling commissioned by the local Labor candidate, Evan Hughes, in May suggested a majority of Wentworth residents thought Turnbull had failed to live up to their expectations. Even among Liberal voters, 35% said they thought less of him since he took over the party in September.
According to that poll, Turnbull’s two-party-preferred vote will be cut from 68% in 2013 to 58% – a healthy win, but a drop that reveals disappointment in the electorate.
In the weekend before the election, environment groups went into overdrive.
Last Friday, Greenpeace activists hung banners from Turnbull’s Edgecliff office on the busy New South Head Road. The posters said “Turnbull’s legacy: bleaching brought to you buy Malcolm’s mates in the coal industry”.
Then on Saturday, a flotilla of kayakers – many of whom were Pacific Islanders – rowed from Blues Point to Lady Martins beach, just metres from Turnbull’s home.
Then on Sunday locals demonstrated in Double Bay’s Steyne Park against what they perceived as Turnbull’s lack of action on climate change.
Speaking to a rally of an estimated 2,000 people, the former member for Wentworth, John Hewson, said Turnbull’s current policy position was a “national disgrace”.
“I think climate change should be the dominant issue of this campaign – it should have been for quite some time,” he told the crowd, to resounding cheers.
While the protest occurred, Greenpeace boats motored around to Turnbull’s house, where they were met by a significant police presence guarding the waterfront.
And as election day approaches, green groups are gearing up for their last push in the battle for Wentworth.
Every environment group in the country seems to have created election scorecards, many of which will be handed out at polling booths in Wentworth. GetUp will be there too, asking voters to put the Liberals last.
“Who knows what will happen on election day,” says GetUp’s Sam Register. “But we know the electorate is frustrated and they feel let down. They wanted more and we are expecting that to be reflected on polling day.
“[Turnbull has] got one of the safest seats in the country and is highly unlikely to lose his seat. But what we want to do by being there is [make] sure that him and other major-party MPs know that we can’t not act on climate anymore and get away with it. People want real action and we’re going to make that an issue of this election campaign.”
