Rudd ducks question on ETS cost… three times!

"You're dithpicable, Kev"

Thanks to Tony Abbott, the government actually has a fight on its hands to persuade the Australian people of the merits of the ETS. If Turnbull had been leader, this would have been waved through without a second thought. How stupid does that look now, eh, Malcolm?

KEVIN Rudd has refused to directly address Tony Abbott’s claim that Labor’s proposed carbon emissions trading system will cost average Australian families $1100 a year.

Instead, the Prime Minister has forecast a Coalition government’s response to climate change would wrap Australians in red tape by allowing Canberra bureaucrats to dictate individual behaviour. [Yeah, Kev, you’d know all about red tape. That’s what Labor does best, isn’t it – big government, red tape, regulation, interference in every aspect of our lives, and massive taxes, just like the ETS – Ed]

In a television interview yesterday, Mr Rudd was asked three times to respond to Mr Abbott’s $1100 claim, which has been at the centre of the Opposition Leader’s political attack since he won the Liberal leadership a fortnight ago.

Each time, he refused to address the figure.

Later yesterday, as Mr Rudd prepared to leave Australia for the UN-organised climate change conference in Copenhagen, Mr Abbott accused him of squirming on questions about his “great big new tax”.

Finally, finally, Rudd is on the ropes.

Read it here.