Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tony Abbott supports a carbon tax

It's hard to believe than Tony Abbott ever endorsed a carbon tax, even tacitly, given the ferocity of his sustained attack on Julia Gillard for announcing her government's intention to set a carbon price next year in anticipation of an emission trading system.

But endorse it he did, on page 172 of Battlelines, the book he wrote after the Liberals lost office and before he took over leadership of the opposition in the spill that cost Malcolm Turnbull the top job by a singe vote. The issue was the ETS that Malcolm had fought so hard for.

Tony's words are cautious, but the meaning is clear:

"...many now think that a carbon charge scheme directed at the least environmentally efficient producers would be simpler and fairer than an emissions trading scheme."

The description, "carbon charge scheme" is hilarious, given that he battered Rudd's ETS with his "great big new tax" positioning. The guy means 'carbon tax'; he doesn't mean 'carbon price', as you need to have a price in order to have an ETS.

Given this, and the multiple positions that Abbott has held on climate change, it's quite obvious that Abbott's line of attack on Gillard is rank opportunism. Throw in the hard to ignore fact that the opposition does actually share the same emissions reductions objectives as the Gillard government, and one is left wondering about the Abbott's credibility. No wonder he has worked so hard to paint Julia as a liar. A case of projection, perhaps?

UPDATE:

Crikey has detailed Abbott's many stances on global warming, and included another example of Abbott's endorsement of a carbon tax:

Still, a new tax would be the intelligent skeptic’s way to deal with minimising emissions because it would be much easier than a property right to reduce or to abolish should the justification for it change.

7 comments:

Geoff said...

"It doesn’t make sense, though, to impose certain and substantial costs on the economy now in order to avoid unknown and perhaps even benign changes in the future.” Tony Abbott on the same page - hardly a ringing endorsement

alicaciones java said...

This is the best post on this topic i have ever read.I am really very impressed with the blogging

What causes global warming? said...

Very very enlightning. Thanks, I take your opinion by saying that the tax is simply redicilous. And no amount of money could put a stop to nature's will, anyway...

plumbing said...

The scientific consensus is that human-induced carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere is a major contributing cause of global warming. Not the only cause, but a big one. There is debate around this, which is a good thing, but the majority of scientists do err on the side of caution here.

nano said...

We can help the nature by new developments and nanotechnology related materials as nanoparticles .

price per head said...

Very informative and helpful. This is a nice information shared here. Keep Posting :)

Unknown said...

very blog
sohbet odaları & sohbet &chat& chat yap & kelebek sohbetkelebek chat & kelebek indir & mirc indir indir &kelebek sohbet & kelebek chat & sohbet odalari & chat odasi & cinsel sohbet & cinsel chat & seks sohbet & sohbet & urfa &urfa haber & sohbet & chat & kelebek sohbet & kelebek chat & chat sohbet & sohbet chat & sohbet & chat & sohbet kanalları & sohbet kanalı