Apparently Rudd has delayed the start of the emissions trading scheme and has dropped the price of carbon from $40 to $10. This has pretty much resulted in a ETS that no one can really oppose. It's not enough, but from that point of view there's always the argument that an ETS is better than no ETS and once we have legislation for trading carbon, the government of the day can change prices etc. without having to pass further legislation.
More importantly this seems to be another massive Howard style wedge on Turnbull, who of course has no climate change policy despite having been environment minister under Howard, where the ETS started and having been part of the debate for months. Climate change seems to be an issue that cuts accross party affiliation. Turnbull will be trapped between Liberal moderates who are pro an ETS and Howardites who are anti-anything-Kevin-Rudd.
Also the 'save the world' aspect of climate change and the timing of the legislation, long enough after the last election to avoid election fatigue, to give the government the attractive option of having an issue to take to an early election that isn't the economy. An issue that Labor has control of and that they seem to poll well on. I'm not sure that the govt. would go to a double dissolution, though it might solve a lot of their problems, they should still be able to call an early election and get a similar result if the Liberals play along and look intransigent when it comes to Saving The World (TM). The Greens quite rightly oppose the watering down of the ETS, which I suspect is part of the plan. The idea is to put Turnbull in a hard place and force him to capitulate publicly and ruin him before the next election, or be obstructionist and face annihilation in some sort of emotive issue election of doom. There's no way you can campaign against 'I know it's hard, and I know it's not what everyone wants, but I'm trying to save the world.'
2 comments:
Pretty bloody sad. I keep thinking, come on Rudd, some things are _too_ important for politics.
But of course, to be a successful politician I guess nothing is too important. Sigh.
it seems that they've wedged the greens too. apparently they've gone to several environmental ngos like the wwf and have actually got them to provide input on their ets, which they duly support, freezing the greens out. no wonder the greens won't support it. bob brown must be pissed.
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