Climate For Change

The Australian Labor Party, under Prime Minister Pat Kelly, has just won a double dissolution election and passed its' Emissions Trading Scheme legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It now looks set for a long term in government.

Opposition Leader Mike Townsend has other ideas. A man of vision, he has ambitions to transform his country but needs the undivided loyalty and focus of his team. Also a committed republican he agrees to co-operate with the Prime Minister to establish the Republic sooner rather than later. He secures the reluctant support of his party for this endeavour. He and Kelly must co-operate in the republican campaign, even as they battle each other for political supremacy.

Brigadier Jim Laidley is the commander of Australian Forces in Afghanistan. A brilliant officer, he is headed for the top, until a sequence of tragic circumstances rob him of both his career and his wife.

Dr Alan Sheppeton is a Nobel Peace laureate and a committed environmentalist, who believes that neither side of politics is doing a very good job in relation to climate change. While he is recuperating from a major illness, he is convinced to run for the office of President.

The lives of these men become linked as Australia is confronted by a new wave of terrorism and controversy surrounding the response to climate change.

The Republic comes to pass and Mike Townsend, now Prime Minister, finds that his ambitions are threatened by an enemy within his own ranks, and by the President whom he helped install.

The crunch comes when Mike has to balance the benefits of a major resources discovery, which could put Australia in an unassailable energy position, against the demands of the environment.

A Climate for Change examines issues surrounding the Australian republic and climate change in the context of a political conflict.