Australian senator warns of “eco-totalitarianism”

Beware Nazi-style environmentalists: Senator

Independent Weekly | Jan 14, 2009

Nationals firebrand Barnaby Joyce has launched a fresh attack on emissions trading, drawing parallels between environmentalists and Nazis.

Senator Joyce warned of the rise of “eco-totalitarianism” and said he would not be “goosestepping” along with them.

The Federal Government plans to start emissions trading in 2010 to reduce carbon pollution and take up the fight against climate change.

“The idea that this scheme can go forward and no one’s allowed to question because there’s a new form of eco-totalitarianism that demands blind obedience, I think that is wrong,” the Nationals Senate leader said in an interview this morning.

“One has to fall into lockstep, goosestep and parade around the office ranting and raving that we are all as one?”

Senator Joyce rejected a suggestion he was a climate change denier and drew a parallel with the Holocaust, the murder of millions of Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II.

“Climate change denier, like Holocaust denier, this is the sort of emotive language that has become stitched up in this (emissions trading) issue.”

Senator Joyce said emissions trading would put Australians out of their homes and out of jobs.

And it would do nothing to counter climate change, he said.

Senator Joyce’s stance raises the possibility of a coalition split with Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull yet to announce a position on emissions trading.

Some within the coalition support taking action on climate change, while others share Senator Joyce’s reservations.

The Government needs the support of the coalition to pass its scheme through the Senate, or it will have to rely on the Greens and independents, a prospect not welcomed by the business lobby.