Darron CharlesworthDump the ETS
April 27th 2010 04:32
Category: No Category
Extensive media reports today that the Government has shelved the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) indefinitely have been met with a quick response and blame shifting from the Government. With the legislation blocked from all sides in the Senate the Government has been quick to lay blame for this on Tony Abbott and the Greens. This response from the Government is not at all fair and does not adequately explain the reasoning behind the blockage in the Senate particularly from the Greens.
It should be made very clear that the reasoning behind the blockage from Abbott is very different from that of the Greens. For Abbott this is purely a reflection of his long term and widely publicised climate change denial stance. Although Mr Abbott has tried to re-badge himself of late it is hard to get away from the fact that he has been a vocal sceptic in the Howard Government and under Turnbull following the Liberal’s loss to Rudd at the last Federal election.
Thankfully the Greens are also blocking the passage of this legislation and for the right reasons – this legislation is completely inadequate for the task is proposes to accomplish. The Greens are correct to try and rescue a package more suited to the task at hand: protection of the environment and a halt to Global Warming. The ETS package that the Government is pushing to pass has been widely recognised as pandering to the commercial interests of the big polluters while doing nothing to address climate change. What would happen if this legislation was passed is that the big polluters would reap Billions at taxpayers’ expense while the environment would continue to be trashed unabated.
For this reason Bob Brown and the Greens must resist the calls that something is better than nothing and that the legislation can be amended later. This is merely a ploy to enact the legislation and line the pockets of the country’s biggest polluters. The entire scheme should not only be shelved but thrown out in its entirety and the process of developing the policy should start again. Australia is a country in the perfect position to develop and deploy wide-spread renewable energy and become a world leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This requires leadership and political will two things that the Rudd Labor Government does not have.
If an ETS is to be developed to address climate change the Government – which ever persuasion – must work closely with the Greens to ensure that Australia’s natural advantages can be utilised and prevent the big polluters hijacking the process.
It should be made very clear that the reasoning behind the blockage from Abbott is very different from that of the Greens. For Abbott this is purely a reflection of his long term and widely publicised climate change denial stance. Although Mr Abbott has tried to re-badge himself of late it is hard to get away from the fact that he has been a vocal sceptic in the Howard Government and under Turnbull following the Liberal’s loss to Rudd at the last Federal election.
For this reason Bob Brown and the Greens must resist the calls that something is better than nothing and that the legislation can be amended later. This is merely a ploy to enact the legislation and line the pockets of the country’s biggest polluters. The entire scheme should not only be shelved but thrown out in its entirety and the process of developing the policy should start again. Australia is a country in the perfect position to develop and deploy wide-spread renewable energy and become a world leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This requires leadership and political will two things that the Rudd Labor Government does not have.
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