'Missing in action': hunt goes on for Coalition's invisible environment minister

Extract from The Guardian

Liberal party

It’s supposed to be the climate change election, and the UN says the planet’s ecosystem is under existential threat. But Melissa Price is nowhere to be seen

Lisa Cox

Sat 11 May 2019 08.17 AEST Last modified on Sat 11 May 2019 08.47 AEST

Melissa Price speaks in parliament house before the election was called and she stopped giving interviews. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Hours after the release of a UN report on the dire state of the planet’s ecosystems, the environment minister, Melissa Price, posted a photo of herself on Facebook at the opening of a miniature railway in her electorate.
It wasn’t until more than 12 hours after the Facebook post that the West Australian MP issued a statement responding to the analysis by 450 scientists and diplomats that warned the decline of the natural world was accelerating, and a million species were at risk of extinction.
There was no interview. The written statement referenced Coalition programs, including a $100m fund announced in the federal budget, aimed at tackling biodiversity loss. It was the most that had been heard of Price so far in the election campaign.

"Price was not by prime minister Scott Morrison’s side for the launch of the Coalition’s environment platform"

“It’s one thing to not want the environment portfolio,” Labor’s environment spokesman, Tony Burke, said. “It’s another thing to refuse to do the job.”
Since she took over the environment portfolio last year, the most conspicuous thing about Price’s performance has been her low profile.

In February, she defended herself against criticism from environment groups calling her the “invisible minister”.
At the beginning of this month, she was not by prime minister Scott Morrison’s side for the launch of the Coalition’s environment platform for the election.
The executive producer of the ABC’s 7.30 program, Justin Stevens, tweeted this week that Price had turned down 11 requests for an interview since becoming minister.

In an election where climate change and the environment have been identified as dominant concerns for voters, Price’s opponents are dismayed the Coalition would hide the person with ministerial responsibility for environmental protection from view.
Both Burke and Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, have written to Price requesting a debate similar to those that have been held for the health and Treasury portfolios. They said they had received no response.
“In an election when it’s clear that climate change is right at the top of issues of importance for voters, it is extraordinary that the minister has been absent from the whole campaign,” Butler said.
The Greens’ environment and water spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, has also called for a debate and accused Price of “hiding from her responsibilities”.
“Melissa Price has been missing in action this election campaign, and since she took the job in August,” she said in a statement this week. “When she has surfaced it has been to insult world leaders fighting for climate action, or to approve the Adani coalmine and a mega uranium mine in WA.”
Immediately before the election was called, Price signed off on Adani’s groundwater management plan for its Carmichael coal mine, despite the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia raising concerns about groundwater drawdown and the monitoring approaches proposed by the company.

A day before the government entered caretaker mode, Price approved a massive uranium mine in Western Australia. Both the federal and WA governments have been warned it could lead to the extinction of native species.
Burke says Price’s absence from the campaign and refusal to participate in interviews has denied voters the opportunity to scrutinise those decisions.
“It’s completely reasonable for the public to expect an explanation,” he said.
Since the release of the UN report, Morrison has been forced to defend the minister.
In Wednesday’s National Press Club debate with the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, he said Price would retain the portfolio if the Coalition was reelected. When Guardian Australia asked his office to confirm this statement was accurate a day later, they directed Guardian to the debate transcript and said they had nothing further to add.
Morrison told reporters on Thursday that Price’s low profile was attributable to her local campaigning commitments in Durack, one of the largest electorates in the country.
Asked if there would be an opportunity for reporters to ask Price a question before 18 May, he said “if the opportunity presents itself then that will happen”.
Guardian Australia requested an interview for this piece and sent questions to Price’s office. Those questions included whether Price would want to return to the role of environment minister if she and the Coalition were reelected.
The Guardian also requested a list of Price’s public engagements for the past few weeks.
A spokesman for Price said in a statement that the minister considered all media requests “on a case by case basis”. He said: “The minister’s priority is with her constituents, and campaigning to ensure the return of the Morrison government.”
Price’s Facebook page provides some clues as to her location. On Friday, she posted a photo of herself at Jurien Bay, where she promised $1.2m to build an RSL and community centre.
On 28 April she visited the Broome golf club and the Broome courthouse markets.
On 3 May, she posted about a candidates’ debate in the seat of Durack. That same day, she uploaded a video of herself speaking about the Coalition’s environment announcements.
The Wilderness Society’s national director, Lyndon Schneiders, has previously criticised Price, but he said her silence was a symptom of a deeper problem for the Coalition on environmental matters.

On Wednesday, slightly more than a day after the release of the UN report, Morrison lamented the expansion of so-called “green tape” and attacked Labor’s plans for an independent environmental protection authority if it wins government.
Schneiders believes the timing of those remarks suggests the Liberal party has misjudged the mood.
“We’ve said from the outset that we thought there was a latent concern for the environment,” he said. “It took the political class a long time to catch up. But clearly, since the UN report, the debate has fundamentally changed.

“It’s not just that [Price] is silent. I think the deeper problem for her and the Liberals is that they have absolutely nothing to say.”