Election 2010: Leaders' debate

26 July, 2010 by

"When are the other two again, Julia?"

The leaders’ debate last night was a bit disappointing. Neither side landed any serious blows, but what came across more than anything was the stark contrast between the hyper-rehearsed sound-bite friendly spin of Julia Gillard and the more authentic, but less assured, honesty of Tony Abbott. Gillard is so like Rudd in the way she can speak for five minutes and not say anything – it’s quite uncanny. Her responses to questions on boat people showed she hasn’t a clue what she’s doing, and the climate issue didn’t get as much traction for Abbott as it should. But he made the very important point that the Coalition at least has a policy whereas Labor are just putting off announcing anything in the hope that the electorate will just vote her in anyway.

Are the Australian people that stupid? Maybe, if the Channel 9 worm is anything to go by. The debate was very close, with most of the commentators giving it to Abbott, yet the worm showed a huge advantage to Gillard – WTF? Just goes to show how easily swung the average voter is by gloss and spin, a new hairdo and nail job.

But there are encouraging signs that things are turning Abbott’s way. The latest NewsPoll shows a move to the Coalition:

THE election campaign has become a tight contest, with the Coalition back in front on primary votes.

Furthermore, Tony Abbott has narrowed the leadership gap on Julia Gillard.

The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, reveals voters have turned against Labor’s proposal for a citizens assembly on climate change and that the women’s vote advantage for Australia’s first female Prime Minister has disappeared.

Labor’s 10-point lead on a two-party-preferred basis at the start of the election campaign has been reduced to a knife-edge 52 per cent to 48 per cent over the weekend, while the Coalition’s primary vote jumped four points to 42 per cent, compared with Labor’s 40 per cent, down from 42 per cent.

And even more dramatic is Gillard’s personal rating, plummeting like a stone:

Satisfaction with the new Prime Minister has also dropped dramatically, from 48 per cent to 41 per cent; dissatisfaction with the job she is doing leapt from 29 per cent to 37 per cent last weekend. (source)

Maybe the Australian people aren’t so stupid after all. We can only hope.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Election 2010: Greens want 100% renewables by 2030

25 July, 2010 by

Vote Labor and this is what you will get

100% out of touch with reality. 100% deluded. 100% on another planet. 100% dangerous for the future of Australia. That just about sums up the Greens, who, as we must keep reminding everyone, will have the balance of power in the Senate after their shady back-room deal with Labor (which Jooolia Gillard doesn’t want to talk about for obvious reasons). To propose 100% renewables by 2030 is pure madness – let’s just think for a moment what that actually means: no coal-fired power stations at all (and no nuclear, of course, no, no, no, we can’t have that), no petrol or diesel driven vehicles at all, no natural gas at all, and all within the next 20 years! Not only that, but they plan to rely on fart power and sunbeams instead! Words cannot begin to describe the utter lunacy of this. But this is precisely what they want, and what they will demand when they hold the balance of power in the Senate. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

The Greens want to completely replace Australia’s reliance on coal with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Greens Senator Christine Milne said yesterday: “Australia can harness our tremendous resources of the sun, wind, ocean, Earth and human ingenuity to replace our reliance on coal with 100 per cent renewable energy within decades.”

Senator Milne said this could be achieved by 2030 with the right preparation and infrastructure. (source)

And Miranda Devine, also in the Herald yesterday, spelt out exactly what life under the Greens would be like:

There’s a lot more Brown and the Greens want if Labor wins: mandated zero net greenhouse gas emissions, the effective end of coal-fired power generation, phasing out of coal exports, a ban on new coalmines or power stations, removal of GM crops, and active discouragement of cars. They want a ban on the exploration, mining and export of uranium, and closure of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, which produces medical isotopes used for cancer treatment. They want to restrict funding of private schools. They want to abolish mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and to expand the definition of refugee to include ”environmental” or ”sexuality” refugees. They want to legislate for same-sex marriage, tinker with age of consent laws, establish ”intersex” as a legal gender, fund gender reassignment, require government to consult lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people on policy, and provide easier access to abortion. On drugs, they are harm minimisation all the way, with more needle exchange programs and injecting rooms. And be prepared for a barrage of nanny-statism, starting with a ban on junk food advertising [which ACM commented on here].

The Greens’ published policies are carefully couched in escape clauses, to avoid the scare campaigns of past elections, when their extreme social agenda cost them votes. But the effect will be the same. And of course, their big-ticket policy, the one with the most nation-changing consequences, is an ETS or carbon tax, with householders paying the price in soaring energy costs. (source)

I have written to Tony Abbott this morning encouraging him to expose the Greens for the extremist, far-Left, hysterical environmental advocacy group that they are, who are not fit to participate in politics full stop, let alone determining the future of Australia under a Labor government. I encourage all Australians to do the same.

UPDATE: To contact Tony Abbott, go to: http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/ContactTony.aspx, or email: tony.abbott@liberal.org.au (Liberals) or Tony.Abbott.MP@aph.gov.au (Parliamentary). Thanks to Sean for the suggestion.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

Election 2010: Gillard's desperate "citizens' assembly" on climate

23 July, 2010 by

A horse designed by a committee

When in doubt, set up a committee – or in this case, two committees. Julia Gillard and Labor don’t have a clue how to address the climate change policy issue, especially with the Coalition stealing the thunder with their direct action plan [even though this blog believes that no policy on climate change is required at all; it’s like having a policy on “the sun rising in the morning” – it will happen anyway, so why bother having a policy on it?] so they plan to set up a brace of committees, one of scientists and one of the general public:

The ABC understands Ms Gillard will outline plans to set up a committee of scientists to advise the Government on climate change.

The committee will be paired with a citizens’ assembly, consisting of 100-200 volunteers who will gauge feeling of the community on its attitude towards putting a price on carbon, and feed it back to the Government.

And we can all imagine who will be on the scientists committee – usual suspect alarmists like David “Asteroid” Karoly and Will Steffen, maybe headed up by someone independent like Penny Wong, perhaps? Hang on a minute, I wonder if they’ll ask Ian Plimer or Bob Carter? Yeah, right. If they did, this author would fall off his perch. And we can guess the “volunteers” will all be paid up Labor/Green warmists who have all been brainwashed by government propaganda and a compliant media to give the answers the government want to hear.

The Coalition have already, and rightly, rubbished the proposal:

Shadow Environment Spokesman Greg Hunt says Julia Gillard’s proposed “citizens assembly” will fail to produce action.

He says the Opposition is promising a $2.5 billion fund to battle emissions.

“It’s a recipe for endless Rudd-type talks,” he said.

“Kevin Rudd himself would be proud of the 2020 summit meets Copenhagen.”

I disagree that it will fail to produce action, it probably will produce action – an ETS or a carbon tax, both of which would trash Australia’s already weakened economy for no benefit to the climate, locally or globally, whatsoever.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Gillard calls election – climate in "top three" policy areas

18 July, 2010 by

Dancing to the tune of the faceless factions

Refreshed thanks to a week away from the grinding moonbattery of climate alarmism, the news that Julia Gillard has called an election will focus people’s minds on climate again. The fact that the election is so soon after her “Night of the Long Knives” demonstrates, to this writer at least, that Gillard is running scared, knowing that if she leaves it any longer, her popularity will sink further and there’s less chance of a victory. She must think we’re stupid, frankly.

Anyway, the ABC reports that climate will be a “key election issue”, although having abandoned the ETS and any chance of a carbon tax, what does that mean, exactly?

Labor’s support dropped in the opinion polls earlier this year when it announced it was shelving the emissions trading scheme.

But Ms Gillard says she will unveil new policies during the campaign.

She also delivered a veiled swipe at Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott over the issue. [Because no Labor politician can say anything without having a veiled swipe at the Opposition. A sure sign that their own policies aren’t worth listening to.]

“What I can say very clearly and guarantee for you that as we announce those policies, my policies, they will be policies coming from a person who believes climate change is real, who believes it’s caused by human activity and who has never equivocated in that belief,” she said.

But Mr Abbott says the Government’s climate change policy will hurt Australians’ standard of living.

“The Coalition and only the Coalition has a clear policy to deal with it,” he said.

“Julia Gillard will talk to you about a carbon price, but she won’t actually establish how she’ll get it, what it will be and how much it’s going to raise the cost of everyday living.”

And the Greens think their time has come, holding the balance of power after a hung parliament. Please, please, please, people of Australia, don’t let that happen.

Read it here. Watch the Liberals’ puppet string advert here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , ,

No ETS or carbon tax until at least 2013

9 July, 2010 by

Abbott is pulling the strings

Be thankful for small mercies, I guess. We have 2 1/2 years (at least) before a Labor government would consider introducing an ETS, and a carbon tax is off the menu. But the vested-interest green groups are desperate, needing continued climate alarmism to justify their own existence:

GREEN groups have demanded Labor introduce a carbon tax or ETS as Julia Gillard prepares to outline her plans to tackle climate change.

“We need to see the government commit to a detailed plan, which would see legislation introduced in the life of the next parliament to limit and put a price tag on pollution,” Climate Institute CEO John Connor said yesterday.

The Prime Minister specifically rejected a carbon tax on Wednesday night, telling ABC Television “the pricing of carbon I think is best done through a market-based mechanism –– that is the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”.

But she confirmed her government would not move on the ETS during the life of the next parliament and instead stick to the timetable outlined by Kevin Rudd.

“I am holding to the decision that was announced by the government that we will review in 2012 the nature of the community consensus in Australia about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, the progress internationally on pricing carbon and combating climate change, and we’ll make a decision then about the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme,” Ms Gillard said.

And the only option for Labor is spelt out by Greg Hunt:

“Julia Gillard has become the second Labor prime minister in four months to postpone the promise of an ETS indefinitely,” he said. “The only place for her to go now is to adopt parts of the opposition’s direct-action approach.”

Tony Abbott is running the climate policy from the Opposition (like he’s running the asylum seekers policy).

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Wong: Gillard wants carbon trading

29 June, 2010 by

Get back in the cave

Penny Wong has crawled out from the cave she’s been in since December to tell a climate conference that Julia Gillard wants a carbon trading scheme.

Some of the world’s leading climate change scientists have gathered on the Gold Coast to discuss how the world can best adapt to a warming world.

Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong welcomed almost 1000 delegates to the event, stressing the importance of the science behind the debate. [Ha, ha – my aching sides]

Senator Wong said the government would listen carefully to what the conference had to say.

“Julia Gillard has made clear her commitment to this issue, and her views about the need for a price on carbon,” she told reporters.

“The reason we don’t have a price on carbon is Tony Abbott tore down a leader (Malcolm Turnbull) and installed himself on the basis that he doesn’t believe climate change is real, and the Australian Greens voted with Mr Abbott. [You mean like faceless factional bosses tore down Kevin Rudd and installed Julia Gillard? The irony is clearly lost on Penny]

“All of us who understand the risks climate change poses to Australia and its future have a responsibility to work and build a consensus, which Tony Abbott torpedoed.”

Ahh, how I’ve missed Penny (not).

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

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: ,

Julia Gillard is new Australian Prime Minister

24 June, 2010 by

In … out.

Kevin Rudd has stepped down and Julia Gillard is now Australia’s first female prime minister. In the end, there was no ballot in the Labor caucus room – Rudd realised that he had so little support. Wayne Swan is the new deputy PM.

The press are pinning Rudd’s downfall primarily on his failure to go ahead with the ETS back in April.

A disastrous day for Labor, and it will be very interesting to see what Gillard does with the policy nightmares – the mining tax, asylum seekers etc, but in particular the ETS, which may be back on the policy table.

The Liberals came out with the “Kevin OLemon” advert just a day or so ago, and now Rudd’s gone. Must be one of the most effective ad campaigns ever! Here it is:

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,
«Previous Page
Next Page»