Labor and Greens in disarray on carbon price

18 May, 2011 by

More spin

Hands up who didn’t see this coming. As every political commentator in Australia is correctly stating, Labor is wedged between alienating their core vote by setting a carbon price too high, and the Greens by setting a carbon price too low.

Too high, and Labor will lose in a landslide at the next election. Too low, and the Greens will abandon their cosy little deal with Labor and force an election sooner – which they will lose anyway. I think that popcorn moment is approaching:

DEEP divisions have emerged between the government and the Greens over the starting price of Julia Gillard’s carbon tax as negotiations enter their final weeks.

After a meeting of the Prime Minister’s multi-party climate change committee, Greens leader Bob Brown seized on a report to be released today suggesting a carbon price of $40 a tonne may be needed to force electricity generators to switch from coal to gas.

But Climate Change Minister Greg Combet declared after the meeting that “from the government’s standpoint, it’s going to be well south of $40 a tonne and no matter what the starting price, there will be generous household assistance”.

With the committee expected to finalise its position on the carbon pricing mechanism ahead of an announcement late next month or in early July, Mr Combet conceded the government and the Greens continued to have “policy differences”, but they were “in good faith endeavouring to negotiate on those issues”.

Hilarious. More spin than a launderette. At least Tony Abbott can see through the fog:

As the MPCCC met in Canberra, Tony Abbott toured the Geelong Ford plant, saying a carbon tax of $30 a tonne would increase the cost of a car by $412. He dismissed Mr Combet’s assurances that the starting price for the carbon tax would be less than $40, saying the tax would rise every year.

“The point of this tax is that whatever level it starts at, it’s going to go up and up and up, and I say to the Australian people: you trust this Prime Minister at your peril,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Never forget the Prime Minister said six days before the election there ‘will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’, (and) within a couple of months ‘yes there will be a carbon tax’. So this is a government which is both incompetent and untrustworthy.” (source)

True. So true.

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"We will oppose the carbon tax in opposition, and repeal it in government"

12 May, 2011 by

PM in waiting

Tony Abbott’s fighting talk in his Budget reply. Those few words should be all the Australian public needs to hear to vote out this illegitimate government at the next election. Gillard had no mandate for a carbon tax, expressly ruled it out on the eve of the 2010 election, and cynically backflipped to appease the Greens in February. If it hadn’t been for those hopeless, grovelling, sycophantic, lily-livered, pathetic excuses for MPs, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, we would never be in this right royal mess.

Here are some key (climate-related) extracts from his reply:

Then there’s the carbon tax that the Prime Minister said would never happen that will just make cost of living pressures so much worse.

A $26 a tonne carbon tax would add 25 per cent more to electricity bills and 6.5 cents a litre more to fuel bills that are already skyrocketing – and that’s before it starts automatically increasing by at least four per cent every single year.

A $26 a tonne carbon tax means 16 coal mines closed, 23,000 mining jobs lost, and 45,000 jobs lost in industries like steel, aluminium, cement, glass, chemicals and motor cars. The Prime Minister talks about compensation but there’s no compensation for people who have lost their jobs.

So let me make this crystal clear: the Coalition will oppose the carbon tax in opposition and repeal it in government. The Coalition will oppose the mining tax in opposition and repeal it in government.

…

The Prime Minister can leave the carbon tax out of the budget but she can’t hide the damage it will do to struggling families’ cost of living, the havoc it will wreak on jobs in manufacturing industry exposed to cut-throat competition, and the fact that it will make no real difference to the environment in the absence of comparable action overseas.

The Prime Minister can’t hide the truth: that this is a tax for which she has no mandate. In fact, she has a mandate not to introduce it. The declaration, “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”, will haunt this government every day until it faces up to this betrayal.

Does anyone think that the Prime Minister would now be in the Lodge had she admitted truthfully, six days out from last year’s election that, yes, “there will be a carbon tax under a government I lead”? This is the cancer that’s eroding the Prime Minister’s standing and sapping the government’s authority.

As things stand, we have a parliament that can’t make decisions people respect, a Prime Minister who looks like she’s not up to the job and a minority government that’s increasingly seen as an experiment that’s failed. If Australia goes on like this for another two and a half years, what is currently a great country with a lousy government could slide into a morass of indecision and paralysis.

Read it all here.

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Abbott pounces on Flannery's flannel

29 March, 2011 by

The ultimate Millennium Bug

Tim Flannery’s recent announcement that any cuts we make to emissions won’t have any effect for a thousand years is already coming back to haunt him, as Tony Abbott makes hay:

TONY Abbott has leapt on a declaration by Tim Flannery – Julia Gillard’s hand-picked salesman for action on climate change – that emissions abatement is a 1000-year proposition to renew his attacks on Labor’s proposed carbon tax.

And Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has distanced himself from Professor Flannery’s concession last week that even if all carbon emissions stopped today, it would take 1000 years for the atmosphere’s average temperatures to drop. While Professor Flannery, a paleontologist who is also the Prime Minister’s chief climate change commissioner, has expanded on his comments to insist the need for action in climate is urgent, his admission in a radio interview on Friday has compromised Labor’s sales pitch on its carbon tax.

In the radio interview, Professor Flannery said: “If the world as a whole cut all emissions tomorrow, the average temperature of the planet’s not going to drop for several hundred years, perhaps over 1000 years.”

In a letter to the editor of The Australian, submitted on Sunday, he expanded on the comments, saying his observation was not “an argument for complacency”. But yesterday, as the role of the carbon tax in Labor’s massive loss in the NSW election dominated federal political exchanges, Mr Abbott quoted Professor Flannery as he ridiculed the tax as “the ultimate millenium bug”.

“It will not make a difference for 1000 years,” the Opposition Leader told parliament. “So this is a government which is proposing to put at risk our manufacturing industry, to penalise struggling families, to make a tough situation worse for millions of households right around Australia. And for what? To make not a scrap of difference to the environment any time in the next 1000 years.”

And what is the government’s response? As usual, ignore the point and blurt out a robotic sound-bite:

Mr Combet said through a spokeswoman that the Gillard government believed in the science of climate change and was determined to act. (source)

Gee, the sheer power of that argument has convinced me, Greg. But you have to feel a bit sorry for poor old Greg and Julia, they brought Flannery in as Climate Commissioner because they thought he’d give them what they wanted, and already he’s become an embarrassment. Oops.

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Newspoll: Labor plummets

8 March, 2011 by

Disaster for Labor (Blue: Coalition/Abbott, Red: Labor/Gillard, Grey: uncommitted

In the first NewsPoll since the announcement of the carbon tax, Labor’s standing in the polls, and that of leader Julia Gillard, has dropped like a stone:

JULIA Gillard’s carbon tax plan has reversed public support for action on global warming, damaged her leadership and delivered Labor its lowest primary support on record.

Tony Abbott is now the closest he has been to Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister.

And, as satisfaction with the Prime Minister slumps just nine months after she agreed to challenge Kevin Rudd, she remains behind the Foreign Minister as the preferred Labor leader.

In just two weeks, Ms Gillard’s personal support has gone from its best since she became Prime Minister in June last year to her worst. It is now the same as Mr Rudd’s failing personal support when he began campaigning for the mining tax in May last year.

Since Ms Gillard announced her intention to introduce a carbon tax from July next year, overall positive public support for action on global warming, even if it meant rising prices for electricity and petrol, has turned negative. A majority of people, or 53 per cent, are now against Labor’s plan, with 42 per cent in favour.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian last weekend, Labor’s primary vote crashed six percentage points to just 30 per cent, the lowest primary vote in Newspoll survey history. Previously, the lowest primary vote was 31 per cent, in 1993, when Paul Keating was prime minister and Australia was in recession.

The Coalition’s primary vote, after falling sharply two weeks ago because of internal divisions, bounced back to 45 per cent. This is the Coalition’s highest primary vote since March 2006, when John Howard was prime minister and nine months before Kim Beazley was replaced by Mr Rudd as opposition leader. (source)

The Australian people do not like being lied to. Whether you support action on climate or not, Gillards backflip, breaking her promise not to implement a carbon tax under “any government I lead”, has irked the electorate and could spell disaster for Labor. Dennis Shanahan:

JULIA Gillard’s decision to announce her plan for a carbon tax from July 1 next year could be the political game-changer for her leadership, the Labor government and, most importantly, the future of climate change action in Australia.

Every possible element to drive down the standing of the Prime Minister, her government and the climate change debate has combined in such a way that the political and social divisions in Australia that have been evolving for years have become palpable and public.

Labor has lost its licence to campaign on climate change, a hard-won goodwill it had towards fighting global warming and a preparedness of consumers to pay, which was the fundamental underpinning of any political campaign to sell a new tax and raise prices.

The extent to which all the fault lines within Labor become entrenched – between the stereotypical inner-city lefties and the suburban conservatives, between young and old and those prepared or able to pay the cost of trying to arrest global warming – will decide the government’s fate. (source)

And also worth a read is Tony Abbott’s comments on climate in Adelaide:

TONY Abbott has declared Julia Gillard wants to change Australia’s way of life by introducing a price on carbon that would make it harder for people to turn on their airconditioners or to drive their cars.

In a speech in Adelaide last night, the Opposition Leader said the carbon tax would be the “big issue” of the next election campaign, regardless of when it was held.

Seizing the opportunity to intensify his attack while the Prime Minister is on her trip to the US, Mr Abbott said: “If this is to be more than just a hit on people’s cost of living, it must utterly transform the way we live and how we work.”

Mr Abbott said, given people’s propensity to use their airconditioners and to drive their cars, “if a carbon tax is to reduce electricity use and car use it will have to raise the price of daily life very considerably indeed”. (source)

Interesting times.

UPDATE: Hilarious to see ABC and Fairfax try to avoid this completely, both leading with “Obama ♥ Gillard” stories… pass the sick bag. On second thoughts, shouldn’t it be Bob Brown visiting the US? He is the PM after all…

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , , ,

Abbott: "people's revolt" against carbon tax

24 February, 2011 by

"We will fight every second of every minute of every day of every month"

Climate Madness of the Year. Julia Gillard, who lied to the Australian people before the last election that there would be no carbon tax, has today announced just such a tax as part of a price on carbon. As readers of this blog will know, a price on carbon will do nothing whatsoever for the climate, and will simply damage Australia’s standard of living and economy. In other words, it is a pointless environmental gesture designed to appease the extremist Greens, on whom Gillard is so dependent.

But Tony Abbott is in fighting mood:

TONY Abbott has predicted a “people’s revolt” over Julia Gillard’s proposed carbon tax, saying the measure is a breach of faith with the Australian people and an assault on their standard of living.

The Prime Minister today announced Australia would have a carbon tax for three to five years before the introduction of a full emissions trading scheme.

But this afternoon Mr Abbott moved to suspend question time in parliament to censure Ms Gillard, saying she had broken a pre-election promise.

The Opposition leader said that under a $26-a-tonne carbon price, power bills would jump $300 a year and petrol prices would rise 6.5c a litre.

He said voters had believed Ms Gillard when she promised before the election that she would not introduce a carbon tax.

“Today’s announcement is an utter betrayal of the Australia people,” Mr Abbott said.

“We will fight this tax every second of every minute of every day of every month.

“I think there will be a people’s revolt against this carbon tax … because the Australian public will be so revolted by this breach of faith.”

In a 2010 election-eve interview with The Australian, Ms Gillard said she would not introduce a carbon tax.

“I don’t rule out the possibility of legislating a carbon pollution reduction scheme, a market-based mechanism,” she said then. “I rule out a carbon tax.”

Moving the censure motion, Mr Abbott asked whether it was the “real Julia” who made the pledge in the first place.

“Nothing is more fake than making a promise to the Australian people before the election and breaking it after the election,” Mr Abbott said. (source)

A tragic day for Australia, and pure Climate Madness from our idiotic leaders.

UPDATE: And this on the day when a new poll shows that fewer people than ever believe the AGW line. Note that 66% of the population do not believe man is to blame for climate change or are unsure:

Poll results

Link here (PDF), thanks to Jo Nova.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Abbott: carbon tax is "economic self-harm"

18 September, 2010 by

No ETS or carbon (dioxide) tax

In this sea of climate madness which we are currently drowning, only Tony Abbott speaks the blindingly obvious truth: a carbon tax would be damaging to Australia’s economy for no benefit to the climate whatsoever. And the majority of business thinks the same (take note Moonbat Marius):

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is sticking to his guns that he will “never” endorse Australia going it alone by putting a price on carbon, a stance supported by a new business survey.

Mr Abbott said on Friday that he will “never” put a price on carbon unless this becomes part of an enforceable international system.

“A go-it-alone carbon tax would be another act of economic self harm and it’s the last thing Australia needs,” Mr Abbott told Macquarie radio.

“The price of your power, the price of your petrol, the price of everything you do goes up under a carbon tax.”

He also attacked the government for a change of heart having “emphatically ruled out a carbon tax pre-election”.

“Now, apparently they’re ruling it in. It just goes to show you can’t trust these guys,” he said.

A survey of 1000 business owners conducted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce of Industry (ACCI) found that 75 per cent oppose the unilateral adoption of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) or carbon tax.

“Calls for a carbon tax or ETS in the name of business certainty certainly don’t represent the general view of business owners,” the chamber’s director of economics and industry policy, Greg Evans, said in releasing the survey results on Friday.

“The reality is business and consumers (would) face the prospect of a doubling of energy prices by 2015 with little global gain.”

Read it here.

UPDATE: Julia Gillard’s excuse for the backflip on the carbon tax is that it’s no longer her decision what happens on climate change, because the “committee” will tell her. No, seriously.

She told Fairfax that what she said before the federal election on climate change no longer applies because a committee of politicians and experts will now develop the policy.

“We laboured long and hard to develop a market-based mechanism,” she said of the emissions trading scheme. [Waffle]

“But I’m recognising the political reality. I campaigned as Prime Minister in an election campaign with policies for the Government. [More waffle]

“We are in a new environment where in order for any action to happen in this Parliament, you need more consensus than the views and policies of the Government and this committee is the way of recognising that.” (source)

No it’s not. It’s a stacked team of warmists who have made up their minds already.

Those independents who handed this incompetent government power should hang their heads in shame.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,

Election 2010: hung parliament?

22 August, 2010 by

At the Four Seasons, Sydney

A stunning result for Tony Abbott. Back in November 2009, having won the leadership by just one vote, all the commentators were predicting a total “wipe-out” at the 2010 election, and just look what happens. Tony “wipes out” Labor’s majority, and may be in with a shot at a coalition government with the independents. A disastrous night for Joolya and Labor, and deservedly so.

Whatever happens, the Coalition are back in the game, thanks to Tony Abbott.

And Josh at Cartoons by Josh (see here) has created the following in response:

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Rudd's foot on the first rung of the UN ladder

10 August, 2010 by

Off to the UN

Secretary General here we come? Tony Abbott rubbishes Joolya Gillard’s “part-timer”:

DUMPED prime minister Kevin Rudd has accepted a part-time role on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s panel on global sustainability.

Tony Abbott immediately seized on the unpaid appointment to attack uncertainty over Julia Gillard’s front bench.

Labor dumped Mr Rudd as its leader in June, replacing him with Ms Gillard, who has said that if she wins the August 21 election her predecessor will have a senior role in a re-elected government.

Two of Labor’s most experienced ministers – Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and Defence Minister John Faulkner – have announced they will quit their positions after the election.

And speculation has swirled that the Prime Minister will offer Mr Rudd the plum role of foreign affairs if Labor is returned.

Mr Rudd said in a statement the UN job would not compromise his role as an MP, presuming he was re-elected later this month in his safe Brisbane seat of Griffith.

But Mr Abbott said the job would involve “significant time out of Australia” and “significant time on UN business”.

“It’s now official. Former prime minister Rudd does have a part time job with the United Nations and what it means is that this government’s ministry is in complete flux,” Mr Abbott said in Sydney.

“Not only do we have a situation where the prime minister can’t say who her finance minister will be, who her defence minister will be, who her foreign minister will be after the election.

“We’ve also got the prospect of part-time ministers in the Gillard cabinet should the government be re-elected.

“It’s just not good enough. Australians deserve a full-time government and they won’t get that if this government is re-elected.”

Read it here.

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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: , ,

Abbott: no price on carbon [dioxide]

19 July, 2010 by

No ETS or carbon (dioxide) tax

Tony Abbott has confirmed that a Coalition government will not set a price on carbon [dioxide].

TONY Abbott has vowed any government he leads would never introduce a carbon price.

The Opposition Leader has hardened the Coalition position, preparing a campaign strategy to target Labor on the basis that it would drive up electricity prices.

He said that, even if the international community agreed on a carbon price, a government led by him would not necessarily back it. “I do not support the government going out there and making consumers pay a price on carbon,”Mr Abbott said.

Even if there was an international consensus position on a carbon price, a Coalition government would not necessarily fall into line, he said.

“Let’s cross that bridge . . . look, it’s not going to happen in the foreseeable future,” Mr Abbott said.

“One thing is for sure, if this government is re-elected there will be a carbon price.

“It will be a high one and it will impact on everyone’s standard of living.”

And then a Labor own goal from Penny Wong [who she?]:

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said without putting a price and a limit on pollution, Mr Abbott had no way to meet the emissions reductions targets that he had signed up to.

“He should be upfront with the Australian people and admit that his policy is a con that will not do anything to reduce emissions,” Senator Wong said yesterday.

But unfortunately, that’s the Labor policy too, and Julia Gillard believes in man-made climate change.

Read it here.

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