"For my next trick, the backflip."
Because now there’s something more important – pushing through a vote on health reform that will give Krudd a double-dissolution trigger that’s not climate change. And he’ll pull it, I think, because his ratings are plummeting and if he leaves it until later in the year, he will be a dead duck. But there’s a risk with that – the people aren’t stupid, they’ll see he’s trying to sneak in under the wire, and hopefully they’ll give him the bloody nose at the polls that he so richly deserves. Could Rudd & Co be the worst government since…? When?
THE Rudd government will delay pushing ahead with its emissions trading scheme, prompting an accusation by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that it is planning one of the “all-time great political backflips”.
In a surprise move, the long-expected reintroduction of the emissions trading legislation to Parliament next week has now been stalled. Instead, the government is shifting its priorities to force a vote on its proposed changes to the private health insurance means test, potentially creating a trigger for a double-dissolution election, as health looks set to be a key battleground in this year’s election.
It means it is almost certain that the next vote on the controversial emissions trading scheme will be pushed back until at least next month.
Mr Abbott yesterday seized on the release of a draft parliamentary order of business that did not list the emissions trading scheme, saying Prime Minister Kevin Rudd seemed to be “running away from his own legislation”.
“Let’s face it, this was just a few months ago not just an important political issue, it was the greatest moral issue of our time,” he said.
Read it here.
Australian Climate Madness 
Simon
To answer your question, this government has to be the worst since …. Federation. I lived through the debacle known as Whitlam and KRudd & Co are well below that benchmark. This lot have to go, they spin more times than a washing machine.
Of course he’ll dump the ETS as it he has seen that it won’t win him any votes. Poor Penny (has it dropped yet) will no longer have her chance to rant and rave and lie – to save the planet.
Didn’t we used to have a means test on health insurance? Again a tax grab initiative to help pay for the so-called poor health system we have. The health system has been on a downward spiral (spin) for years and no govt has had the guts to do something. Guess what caused it – remember “medibank” (ala Whitlam). Fraser privatised it and replaced it. Now the states don’t have enough money to fix their stuff ups (mostly labor govts by the way) with the health system.
I do think we need a national system but who pays? I would hazard a guess that KRudd wants the system that the saviour of the world (Obama) wants to put in – expensive, hopeless and worse than what we have now.
Do we really need these idiots?
Have a nice day.
A classic “look over there” tactic from the spinner in chief. Clearly Rudd doesn’t want to go to an election with climate change being the determining issue. I would lay odds at this stage, that Rudd won’t even want to mention it during the campaign.
As far as DD goes, this will serve to expedite the election date, possibly this side of August. This should mesh nicely with the fallout of the next phase of the GFC. Where a threat emerges during the lead up to an election, people will vote for the incumbents, even in the absence of any policy to deal with it. Of course, Rudd’s response to GFC phase 1 has already put us firmly on the path to insolvency. Everyone can call for a better health system, but it has to be paid for. How will that happen – more debt, more taxes ? Meanwhile the majority of Australians continue in their poor health habits. They don’t really want a better health system, they just want someone else to pay for their unhealth. If you think that sounds like the moral foundation of another government policy, you are correct – it’s called the CPRS.