An ABC's Four Corners program, in February 2006, exposed the fact that for the past decade, the Government's policies have been determined by a cabal of powerful fossil-fuel lobbyists.

This cabal consists of executive directors of corporations in the coal, oil, cement, aluminium, mining and electricity industries, the very corporations whose commercial interests would be most affected by any move to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

The story was uncovered by Guy Pearse, while researching his PhD thesis in 2005 at the Australian National University. It has recently been published as a book titled High and Dry. An extract from his book appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend 30.6.07.

As a member of the Liberal Party and a former advisor to Senator Robert Hill when he was environment minister, Pearse managed to coax the leading members of the fossil-fuel lobby into frank admissions about how they go about their business.

The members of the cabal, who happily described themselves as the "greenhouse mafia", claim to be more familiar with greenhouse policy than the Government, because they are the ones who wrote it! This greenhouse mafia is the most potent lobbying alliance in Australia. Most of its members have been operating in Canberra for two decades, making their way up the bureaucratic ladder under Labor and Coalition governments.

After conducting hours of interviews, Pearse concluded that the greenhouse mafia is absolutely committed to defeating the environment movement on climate change. Their early big win occurred when they combined in 1996/7 to derail attempts by the deputy secretary of the Environment Department to promote a carbon tax.

The Howard Government has allowed the greenhouse mafia extraordinary influence over Australia's stance on climate change. Alone among the nations of the developed world, Australia included key members of fossil fuel lobby groups in its official delegation to negotiate the Kyoto protocol. Even the Bush administration did not permit this unseemly arrangement.

Green groups have been no match for such a potent opponent when it comes to crucial policy decisions. This is when the inside knowledge and connections of the Greenhouse Mafia really make a difference and when the democratic process is overruled.

Cabinet deliberations, Ministerial committees and preparation of Cabinet submissions are required to be confidential and beyond the reach of lobbyists. Yet Pearse's research shows that the greenhouse mafia has unrivalled access to internal government processes. They have even used this access to help public servants in the Industry and Resources Department write submissions designed to counter proposals coming to Cabinet from the Australian Greenhouse Office through the Environment Minister.

When the inner workings of the greenhouse mafia and its influence on the Howard Government were exposed on Four Corners, the Opposition and the Greens called for an enquiry, but were unsuccessful.

The information above was researched from an extract from Guy Pearse's book High and Dry published in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend June 30 2007; and from Dr Clive Hamilton's book 'Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change'. Dr Hamilton is the executive director of The Australia Institute and a leading authority on the economics and politics of climate change.

A copy of the prepared email to Malcolm Turnbull is shown below.

Regards from the Citizens Climate Campaign Committee