Even Garrett didn't know ETS was dumped!

Feel like a mushroom?

We knew that staff at the Department of Climate Change found out by jungle drums that the ETS was shelved until 2013 [translation: dumped], but The Australian reveals that that Environment Minister Peter Garrett himself was unaware of the decision until he “read it in the newspapers”, such is the high regard with which Garrett is held within Rudd’s cabinet:

Mr Garrett said the decision was taken by Kevin Rudd’s inner Cabinet as part of the budget process and he had taken no part in the discussions. He said it was disappointing that the decision had been leaked and revealed that the first he knew about it was when he read a story in a newspaper report on April 27.

“That was an announcement and a decision that was leaked and I found out about it when it was leaked,” Mr Garrett told Sky News’ Saturday Agenda.

Mr Garrett’s admission is confirmation that the ETS decision was not discussed by the full cabinet and that the discussion was restricted to the so-called gang of four: Prime Minster Mr Rudd, his deputy Julia Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.

It also confirms that the ETS proposal was abandoned as part of the Budget process. Factoring in the ETS costs would have made it harder for the government to meet its accelerated target for eliminating the budget deficit.

And because dumping the ETS wasn’t enough to plug the massive black hole in their fictional budget, they whack a 40% tax on mining companies. Brilliant.

Read it here.