Leaders debate misses the mark on climate

Later in the debate, Bill Shorten attacked Malcolm Turnbull for supporting the Direct Action Plan and Emissions Reduction Fund, which are policies inherited from Tony Abbott's days and which as a backbencher in 2009 Mr Turnbull famously described as "Bullshit."

What remains mystifying is that Malcolm Turnbull spent the debate repeating his 'jobs and growth' mantra like a broken record, yet failed to mention the massive opportunities inherent in the growth of renewable energy and related technologies for a truly agile future for this country.

Instead, Mr Turnbull took the defensive position of renewables - attacking the ALP for their more impressive 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.

Despite a recent series of statements from the Government about innovation as a driver for jobs and growth, these have been largely undermined by actions such as removing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's (ARENA) remaining funding from the budget and removing their grant making function and abolishing climate jobs from the CSIRO.

Maybe this explains why Malcolm Turnbull did not talk about renewable energy as a driver for his often-repeated 'jobs and growth' agenda, because it would expose him to being caught out on the Government's record.

Bill Shorten had an opportunity to criticise the government on its record and to talk up the ALP's own more ambitious climate policies, but like much of the debate itself, it remains a missed opportunity.

This inaction on serious environmental policies is born out in ACF's election scorecard, released today, which was only able to give the Liberal/National coalition 11 per percentage points out of 100 (woefully low), while the ALP scored 53 and the Greens 77. Clearly there is room for improvement all round.

Yet with a whole month to go between now and election day – we can only live in hope that both leaders take the opportunity now to improve their environmental policies and give voters something to really believe in.