On the right of the party, climate-change scepticism, Euroscepticism and, latterly, detestation of the Liberal Democrats presiding over DECC are related creeds.
He's promising free college tuition and a single-payer healthcare system at a time when Congress is held hostage by musket-toting tea party climate-change deniers who are out to overthrow the government and crucify any Republican who agrees with a Democrat on anything.
The aftermath may also have helped persuade Tory David Davis to break the cross-party climate consensus by railing against the imposition of "hairshirt policies".
Innes Willox, the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, said it was "impossible to compare the costs of the major parties' climate policies because neither has told us how they would achieve a target".
Having spent time analysing the parties' climate change policies for the University of Melbourne's Election Watch, I'm disappointed that yet another speech by Greg Hunt, the shadow minister for climate action, failed to answer key questions about the Coalition's climate policy.
The rise of tea parties, climate deniers, and conservative TV and radio pundits, also created barriers to the preservation of the planet, the protection of public health and promotion of new jobs.
In the UK only the Green party has climate targets roughly in line with what climate science says is needed.
But since the forest fires shifted public debate, the party's climate skeptic position — it denies there is any link between climate change and extreme summer temperatures — has become a political liability.
The Australian Labor party's climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, said Australia, as the chair of the G20, should allow climate change to be on the agenda for discussion at the key meeting in Brisbane later this year.
