It would have made a great April Fools joke — if it wasn't only February. On Wednesday, we woke to the news that Greg Hunt, environment minister in the most anti-environment government in Australian history, had been awarded 'World's Best Minister' at an international summit in Dubai.
This was the environment minister in charge when the federal government scrapped the carbon price, abolished the independent Climate Commission, attempted to remove parts of Tasmania's wild forests from World Heritage listing, conducted a never-ending review of the Renewable Energy Target that decimated clean energy investment, slashed jobs in the Environment Department and CSIRO, and approved the massive Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin.
Under Hunt's now lauded environmental leadership, Australia's emissions actually rose from 2014-2015, and are on track to continue rising until 2030. Confidence evaporated in the clean energy industry, prompting a two-year investment drought and leading to the loss of 2500 clean energy jobs between 2013 and 2014.
Most recently we dived ten places in Yale University's Environment Performance Index, which Hunt himself once called 'the most credible, scientifically based' analysis of its kind.
Not exactly the hallmarks of the world's best.
So what on earth is this award, and why was it given to an environment minister who hasn't improved his country's environment? Here's an idea — it had nothing to do with Hunt's track record back home. In the grubby way of politics everywhere, the award is a favour returned. It's a thank you from an oil-rich nation for making it look good in the past. Let's call it the Sheikh Back-Scratching Theory.
Some context. The Best Minister in the World Award is a new initiative of the World Government Summit, a yearly forum hosted in oil-rich United Arab Emirates. The criteria are 'Innovation & Leadership', 'Quality & Impact', 'Replication' and 'Reputation'.
The Summit's website says the candidates and judges were chosen by media company Thomson Reuters, and in a radio interview Hunt said Reuters initiated the award. But Reuters has denied this, and quickly distanced itself from the process.
The biography of Hunt on the award's website isn't much help. Riddled with typos, it lists 'achievements' that only sound impressive if you don't know the background.
It mentions Hunt's Emissions Reduction Fund but not the successful carbon price that was repealed to make way for it. It spruiks the Renewable Energy Target, which the Abbott government undermined, then cut, while Hunt was environment minister. It