Seven Casualties- The Politicial History Of Australia's Utter Inability To Deal With Warming
The story starts in 1997, when the brand-new Howard government (sweating through a brief and cock-up-infested first term during which it lost a series of ministers and most of the margin with which it had wrested power from Paul Keating) sends its environment minister, Robert Hill, to Japan for the seminal Kyoto Climate Summit.
At the summit, Senator Hill negotiates generous terms for his country in the global deal; Australia emerged with large concessions for its agricultural activities and is one of only three countries permitted to increase its emissions under the deal. Senator Hill is welcomed home as a conquering hero. However, over the years enthusiasm for the compact is replaced within the government by scepticism.
First casualty
In April 2001, John Howard's Cabinet resolves not to ratify the Kyoto Treaty after all. In 2004, Malcolm Turnbull enters the Parliament as the federal Member for Wentworth. He spends a brisk period on the backbench, annoying treasurer Peter Costello by drafting ambitious new proposals for tax reform which are frigidly rejected by the relevant minister.
In January 2007, Mr Howard appoints him environment minister. A punishing drought has blanketed the continent with dust. As Australians watch the climate seemingly change frighteningly around them, public support grows for climate abatement strategies and Mr Turnbull counsels Mr Howard to ratify Kyoto. Mr Howard enlists senior bureaucrat Peter Shergold to design an emissions trading scheme that would control and reduce the nation's carbon dioxide emissions. This is the policy that Mr Howard takes to the 2007 election.
EDIT
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-23/climate-change-policy-a-brief-history-of-seven-killings/10152616