G-day Greg Hunt Australian Minister for the Environment,

In 1990 you co-authored a university thesis entitled A Tax to Make the Polluter Pay. Your conclusion was, “Ultimately it is by harnessing the natural economic forces which drive society that the pollution tax offers us an opportunity to exert greater control over our environment.”

I understand that you were appointed Minister for the Environment under Prime Minister Tony Abbott on 18 September 2013 and that on the 19^th of September, one of your first actions as Minister for the Environment was to ring Tim Flannery, the head of the Climate Commission, to announce the closure of the scientific advisory body.

Since then I also understand that the Abbott government has redirected funding to assist climate change skeptics.

I also understand that since your government took office you have attempted to scrap the Marine Parks established under the preceding Labor Government.

Claiming that it was locking out recreational fishing.

Your approval of the Abbot point expansion project has been extremely controversial and resulted in a huge diplomatic scurry to try and prevent UNESCO listing the reef as being “in danger”. It obviously is.

Mean while off the West Australian coast your government, instead of going fishing… recently quietly approved permits for seismic testing to commence to look for petroleum in areas that were listed as marine parks, before you suspended them for review.

Sooo…I was just wondering Gregg, (to quote office space) What would you say you do here?… People skills?

While I did find your thesis an interesting read, I find both it and your governments blatantly apparent short-sited mentality utterly redundant. To accept that pollution is going to occur and simply try to tax those that pollute to make up for this is where you start to go wrong. It seems that you may have a reasonable handle on economics, but perhaps struggle a little in understanding the environment. Numbers and money don’t really mean anything to the planet that sustains us.

I gather this misunderstanding is why you are so hell bent on continuing to support the rampant development of our countries vast natural resources and continue to focus on fossil fuel extraction and export as opposed to encouraging development in the renewable energy sector, as opposed to creating barriers that prevent it.

I’m not sure if your ever able to sleep at night?…Being aware of the environmental destruction associated with the things you and your Govornment is upto? If you ever do manage to doze off, even if just for a moment, I hope that like me you dream of a bright green sustainable future for our beautiful country where our existence no longer continues to rely on mining fossil fuels and destroying our environment. Dream of a country who’s leader and politicians no longer act with the interests of the mega wealthy at heart but rather the well being of our collective country. Dream of an Australia that has a future.

When you wake up… I hope you spend the rest of your days as the Australian Minister for the Environment working towards making this a reality. Otherwise it might be time to find a new job?

Kind regards,

Ben Ryan