With the UN COP26 summit in Glasgow – one of the most significant climate change conferences since the 2015 Paris Agreement – approaching in November, one comedian has taken it upon himself to shame the PM over Australia’s climate record.
Dan Ilic, host of A Rational Fear and self-proclaimed ‘investigative humourist’, has spearheaded the ‘Truthful Billboard Project’ which aims to “fix Australia’s lies” at the Glasgow talks.
Ilic’s goal was to raise $12,500 to pay for three billboards in Glasgow decrying Australia’s climate record. He has already raised $62,900 – 503 per cent of his original goal.
In a video accompanying the fundraiser, Ilic pointed out that at climate talks, “the number one enemy has traditionally been Australia.”
“We are famous at these talks for cheating, lying, and giving fake commitments.”
He also describes the government’s track record on climate emmissions, renewable projects and coal power.
https://twitter.com/danilic/status/1442228727060963329?s=20
The goal of the three billboards, according to Ilic, is to make it clear that the poeople representing Australia at the climate talks “don’t necessarily represent Australians”.
Two of the billboards have already been created: one takes the form of an illustrated Australian tourism postcard with the caption ‘Cuddle A Koala! Before we make them extinct’ by artist James Hillier.
The second is a classic rip off of a Tourism Australia ad (cheekily taking a leaf from the book of Scotty from Marketing himself), featuring a bush landscape, beautiful sunset and a kangaroo with its tail on fire.
Its slogan? ‘Australia: Net Zero by 2300!’.
The design of the third billboard will be decided by whoever donates more than $4000 to the project.
Since hitting the fundraising goal on Monday, Ilic tweeted, “Don’t worry you can still donate – it means we can buy a bigger billboard!”.
In an announcement on the fundraiser posted Tuesday morning, Ilic revealed that they had raised enough money to animate the billboards, which could now appear in the very building the COP26 conference is being held in.
On Wednesday, Ilic announced that they were now also raising money for a project called ‘JokeKeeper’, a $1,000,000 fund to “pay comedians, satirists, filmmakers, producers and data scientists to create a season of digital sh**stirring from November up until the election.”
“This full time team will create satirical content in any medium to undermine incumbent coalition politicians who continue support continue to support fossil fuel extraction and are also strategically most vulnerable to climate action centric candidates.”
Ilic’s project comes as it was revealed that Morrison may not even be attending the climate summit.
The PM’s office said it had not yet made a decision about whether Morrison would be representing Australia at Glasgow.
As reported by the ABC, Marisa Payne, foreign minister, said “it is a significant undertaking, as you know it involves the two-week domestic quarantine as well, so no final decisions have been made.”
Earlier this year, Morrison flew to the UK to attend the G7 summit in Cornwall. He also recently returned from the US, where he met with Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, and Joe Biden, US President.
The fact that Morrison has not confirmed his appearance at the summit has received criticism.
Scott Ludlam, former Greens senator, tweeted: “go to glasgow you massive coward”.
Others, including Greens leader Adam Bandt and Labor senator Nita Green, have responded similarly.
Yes if @ScottMorrisonMP doesn’t go to COP 26 in Glasgow it will confirm to the world that Australia is a pariah on climate change mitigation. https://t.co/JJXtngfGBS
— Quentin Dempster (@QuentinDempster) September 28, 2021
Dumps France by text, ghosts Glasgow, keeps making you feel bad for his failures (vaccines & quarantine), tells you he’ll be there for you but heads to Hawaii just when you need him?
It’s time Australia breaks up with Scott Morrison. #auspol
— Senator Nita Green (@nitagreenqld) September 27, 2021
While the rest of the world's pledging bold 2030 targets, Scott Morrison’s in hiding.
He’s planning not to go to the Glasgow climate summit, hiding behind a 2050 delay while backing more coal and gas.
Bold action by 2030. Quit coal & gas. That’s what we need. Nothing less.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) September 27, 2021
On the other side, however, far-right politician Pauline Hanson is calling for a step further: she thinks Australia should boycott the conference all together.
