Gillard wants more renewables to tackle climate change

28 June, 2010 by

Pushing renewables

Which means more money wasted on subsidising solar panels and wind farms, both hopeless for baseload electricity generation. But at least she talks vague sense on an ETS and acknowledges that there isn’t a consensus for a price on carbon… yet.

Labor sources have confirmed the focus of her pitch for the environment vote will be on renewables — boosting the use of solar and wind power to help meet the government’s pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

But arguing that community consensus is “not there yet” on an ETS, Ms Gillard yesterday backed the need to put a price on carbon to encourage businesses to change their practices; she offered no timetable on delivering one.

The newly-installed Prime Minister said yesterday she accepted “my fair share” of the responsibility for the decision to delay the introduction of an ETS, a policy backflip that coincided with a collapse in Kevin Rudd’s polling.

Asked if it were true she had argued for the ETS to be dumped as part of the Rudd government’s powerful kitchen cabinet, Ms Gillard confirmed she had.

“I was concerned that if you were going to do something as big to your economy as put a price on carbon, with the economic transformation that implies, with changing the way in which we live, you need a lasting and deep community consensus to do it,” she told the Nine Network.

“And I don’t believe we have that lasting and deep community consensus now.

“Now, I believe we should have a price on carbon, and I will be prepared to argue for a price on carbon . . . so that we get to that lasting and deep community consensus, but we are not there yet.”

Ms Gillard pledged that she would soon be making further statements on new policy measures to “address the challenge of climate change”.

“I am not a denier — I am not a denier, but I’m someone who believes that you have got to take the community with you when you make lasting and deep changes,” she said.

All I can say is that it’s extraordinary to hear Gillard use the word “denier” in the context of her own beliefs, especially after her post-ETS vote down speech (see here).

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

Julia's backflip on climate

25 June, 2010 by

First of many?

Looking back through the ACM archives, I was reminded of the speech by Julia Gillard after the defeat of the ETS in December last year, where she used the phrase “national interest” no less than sixteen times:

We are doing this to give the Liberal Party one chance to work through and deal with this legislation in the national interest. We all know the Liberal Party is deeply divided on this question and there have been many Liberal voices prepared to speak up for the national interest and to speak in favour of our plan to tackle climate change.

We believe that over the Christmas period there is time for the calmer heads in the Liberal Party to consider this question: to consider acting in the national interest and to join with the Government on the first sitting day when Parliament resumes to take decisive steps to deal with climate change.

We will bring this Bill back into the Parliament because it’s the right thing to do in the national interest. We are determined to see this legislation pass the Parliament.We know that there are Liberals who are prepared to support this legislation. We know supporting this legislation was the position of the Liberal Party only a few short days ago.

We call on those in the Liberal Party over the summer period who believe in taking responsible action on climate change to consider their position, to consider the position of their Party and to come back to the Parliament next year ready to take action on climate change. (source link dead)

Paul Sheehan in The Sydney Morning Herald summarised it well:

When Julia Gillard faced the media outside Federal Parliament in Canberra on Wednesday she looked shell-shocked. She then proceeded to give the most jittery, hollow, nonsensical performance of her career. It was pantomime of the lowest order.

”Today the climate change extremists and deniers in the Liberal Party have stopped this nation from taking decisive action on climate change,” the Deputy Prime Minister said, deadpan, into a thicket of cameras and recorders.

Extremists and deniers. In case anyone had missed the point, she repeated the phrase five times. ”Now [we] have been stopped by the Liberal Party extremists and the climate change deniers. This nation has been stopped from taking a major step in the nation’s interests by Liberal Party extremists and climate change deniers.”

This is clearly going to be the mantra the Rudd Government uses to describe anyone who opposes its pointless legislation on an emissions trading scheme.

Gillard used the terms ”denier” or ”denial” 11 times, pointed words because they carry the connotation of Holocaust denial. The last time that tactic was used in the national debate, after the release of the Bringing Them Home report, it exploded on those who used it.

So this is going to get interesting because the political ground has shifted in the past six months. It is now the Rudd Government that appears to be in a state of denial. (source)

And now she is waiting for community consensus? Sounds like a Rudd-style backflip to me.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Gillard "cautious on climate change"

24 June, 2010 by

Yes, Prime Minister

All the ecotards are crawling out of the woodwork, pressuring Gillard to resurrect the ETS. But initial signs are that Gillard is resisting, at least for the time being:

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is in no hurry to start emissions trading, resisting pressure from green groups to take faster action on climate change.

Labor’s decision in April to delay emissions trading until at least 2013 contributed to a dramatic dive in the standing of the government and former prime minister Kevin Rudd [and that’s not because people wanted an ETS, but because it showed that Rudd had no principles and about as much backbone as a jellyfish].

Ms Gillard indicated it would be business as usual on emissions trading under her watch, because there wasn’t a community consensus on the need for a price on carbon.

“First, we will need to establish a community consensus for action,” Ms Gillard told reporters today, shortly after her election as Labor leader.

“If elected as prime minister [at the next election], I will re-prosecute the case for a carbon price at home and abroad.”

She would pursue that argument “as long as I need to” to win over the community.

But the usual climate whingers are on Gillard’s back already, such as John Connor from the Climate Institute, and Greenpeace of course, all with vested interests and political agendas to pursue. At least Gillard acknowledges that there isn’t a community consensus on the issue at the moment…

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Labor and Greens bicker over ETS failure

14 June, 2010 by

Labor v. Greens

Labor can see votes leaking away to the Greens thanks to the abandoning of the ETS, so are now in damage control, attacking the Greens as the ulimate reason for the scheme’s demise:

Government frontbencher Anthony Albanese says the Greens need to be held to account for their role in blocking the legislation late last year.

“If they had voted for a price on carbon, we’d have one today,” he told Channel Ten on Sunday.

“We did everything possible to get a CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) introduced.”

Greens leader Bob Brown says his party has no regrets about voting down the scheme.

He says the ETS did not pass the Senate because Labor chose to negotiate with the Coalition.

“They got into bed with the Liberals; now they are crying foul,” he said.

“The Greens have the Ross Garnaut alternative of a carbon tax before the Parliament, before the Government. It can take it up now, get it through before the election and get back the lost public esteem.”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the Government could have negotiated a deal with the Greens, but chose not to.

“If Kevin Rudd was serious about tackling climate change, why has he not met with Bob Brown?” she said. [Because he realises that doing a deal with the Greens would turn off more voters than he’s losing already]

“Why has he refused to negotiate with the Greens? This is a Government that has made mistake after mistake, backflip after backflip, and they don’t want to wear the consequences or take any responsibility.”

Now, now, children. At least we all agree on that last summary of Rudd and Labor.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Rudd: Climate will be "core election issue"

8 June, 2010 by

You can tell when he's spouting horse-shit, his lips move…

Music to my ears. This is great news for the Opposition and Tony Abbott, as Kevin Rudd claims he will be going to the election with two massive new taxes, the 40% super profits tax on resources, and the threat of an ETS to push up the prices of virtually everything. When you add this to the disastrous poll results for Labor this week, it’s a double whammy that will knock Rudd for six (with luck). But of course, you can never trust a single word Rudd says, so it’s probably all horse-shit anyway and he’ll conveniently forget the ETS again, but for today at least, it’s the story:

Climate change will be still be a core issue at the federal election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

The federal government has officially delayed its emissions trading scheme (ETS) until at least 2013 after failing to convince the Liberals to pass it.

But that doesn’t mean the government isn’t fully committed to tackling climate change, Mr Rudd says.

He said that, unlike Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has a different view on the subject “depending on what day of the week you happen to ask” [I think you’ll find that’s a description of you], the government has always accepted [the dodgy, corrupt, fudged, politically and financially motivated, biased and discredited IPCC version of] the science of climate change.

“It is clear to me and always has been, for years and years and years, that climate change is happening,” Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday. [Yeah, it’s happening mate, and has since the dawn of time – get the f**k used to it]

“That is why I ratified Kyoto. The Liberals were opposed to ratifying Kyoto.”

Yeah, and what did Kyoto do for the climate, Kev? Speak up, can’t hear you! That’s right: nothing, nada, zip. And yet it has cost global economies billions which could have been spent on, oh, I don’t know, how about better healthcare, or better schools or in fact anything else rather than pointless emissions reductions.

But I’m not complaining. Rudd has already shot himself in one foot with the resources tax, and raising the spectre of an ETS again will be a bullet straight through the other. I don’t know about a lame duck PM, more like a terminally crippled one.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

Wong "misled Senate" on ETS dumping

7 June, 2010 by

Responsibility? Me?

The Australian reports that Penny Wong may have misled the Senate about the precise details of the dumping of the ETS:

CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong has been accused of deliberately misleading the Senate over the dumping of the government’s centrepiece emissions trading scheme after she said cabinet had decided on shelving the plan.

The opposition attacked Senator Wong yesterday over her evidence to the Senate estimates committee after Environment Minister and cabinet colleague Peter Garrett admitted he had not been consulted about the government’s decision and had learned about it by reading a newspaper. (see here)

Mr Garrett revealed the decision was taken by Kevin Rudd’s four-person kitchen cabinet as part of the budget process.

He said it was disappointing that the decision had been leaked and he revealed that the first he had known about it was when he had read 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’s Saturday Agenda.

But under cross-examination in Senate estimates last month, Senator Wong said the entire cabinet had made the decision.

“Yes, it was a cabinet decision, and I have said the decision was made shortly before announcement, and that is as far as I propose to go in relation to cabinet processes and deliberations,” she said.

But don’t forget – this is Labor, so there’s always a way to spin it so that no-one ever has to accept responsibility for anything. In this case, the paper thin excuse is that the term “cabinet” includes any committee of cabinet, and the entirely unofficial assembly of the gang of four counts as a cabinet committee, despite the fact that it doesn’t even have a name, less still a documented role (other than Kevin Rudd’s personal claque).

Phew, that’s OK then.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Even Garrett didn't know ETS was dumped!

5 June, 2010 by

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.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Rudd hints at new ETS

3 June, 2010 by

Is this a backflip on a backflip? Kevin Rudd is threatening a new ETS, to be introduced after the election and passed with support from the Greens:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has hinted at a whole new approach to climate change – a greener ETS, passed sooner than planned.

The federal government has officially delayed its ETS until at least 2013 after failing to convince the Liberals to pass it.

But Mr Rudd changed tack during a media conference with a well-known advocate for action on climate change today.

He opened the door to passing an ETS after this year’s election, and with the help of the Australian Greens, not the Liberals.

A recent poll shows Labor is losing votes to the Greens, who have soared to a record level of support.

“We need to make sure that the Senate becomes, shall I say, positioned in a manner which is able to deliver that change to Australia’s domestic laws,” Mr Rudd said at a news conference with the Maldives President.

You literally cannot trust a single word this man utters – a prime minister without any principles who will do anything to stay in power.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Chris Uhlmann on Rudd's ETS about-turn

14 May, 2010 by

Refreshing

Chris Uhlmann is a rarity in ABC circles – a journalist who isn’t a global warming ecotard with an axe to grind. So it is refreshing to read his critique of Kevin Rudd’s volte face on climate change:

The nude ball is well known in cricket circles.

It’s a derogatory term applied to deliveries that don’t spin, swing or seam. With the bowler doing nothing to defeat the batsman nude balls usually disappear over the boundary and the fielding captain is forced to change the attack.

The Government’s defence for its new position on climate change is the nude ball of politics. After campaigning for three years on the urgent need for an emissions trading scheme as the central weapon for reducing Australia’s carbon footprint it abruptly shelved the idea because it all got too hard.

The argument for delay is that it couldn’t get agreement in the Senate, and that international progress is too slow.

The Prime Minister summed up the case for delay in his recent exchange with The 7:30 Report’s Kerry O’Brien. [See ACM’s comment on this here – Ed]

“We believe that an emissions trading scheme is the most effective and cheapest way of getting there, [Tony Abbott] has rejected that position despite the Liberal Party having formally embraced it,” Kevin Rudd said.

“I now have to confront the reality of that is what he’s done… the progress on global action has been slower than any of us would like. That is why we’ve announced a decision that we would not seek to reintroduce this legislation until the end of the Kyoto commitment period and on the basis that global action has been adequate.”

Abandoning the idea because of Senate obstructionism ignores the fact that the Prime Minister could seek to have both houses of Parliament dissolved and then put the matter to the people at an election. If he won that election he could then put his Carbon Pollution Reduction bill to the vote at a joint sitting.

It’s not something anyone would do lightly but it is something you would do if you believed that climate change was the great moral and economic challenge of our age.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Rudd loses it on 7.30 Report

13 May, 2010 by

Grim faced

As the Herald Sun puts it, channelling the spirit of Mark Latham. Well, what else can the poor chap do? He’s claimed climate change is the greatest moral challenge since the dawn of time, but then drops the ETS like a hot rock when it looks like the public don’t like it. Not content with that, he then pretends that climate change is still at the forefront of Labor policy. What a joke!

THE PM has been accused of petulance and likened to Mark Latham after a fiery outburst during a television interview last night.

Some of his political opponents compared the prime minister’s performance on ABC Television’s 7.30 Report with former failed Labor leader Mark Latham.

“He’s starting to lose it,” opposition frontbencher Andrew Robb said.

The night before, a visibly angry Mr Rudd dismissed a suggestion he had shown political cowardice on climate change by deferring his carbon pollution reduction scheme until at least 2013.

“(Climate Change Minister) Penny Wong and I sat up for three days and three nights [so what? – Ed] with 20 leaders from around the world to try and frame a global agreement,” he said.

…

Mr Rudd’s deputy Julia Gillard defended her boss saying he was passionate about climate change action.

“You’re seeing the prime minister articulate the policy but also the passion and enthusiasm to deal with this question of climate change in that interview.”

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne dismissed that description of the interview, saying Mr Rudd was “just petulant”.

His colleague Greg Hunt went further: “He is making wildly erratic decisions and morphing into Mark Latham, but without the conviction.

“It appears that under the slightest pressure the prime minister is looking increasingly out of control.“

Read it (and watch an extract) here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,
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