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Kevin Rudd’s dumping of his Emissions Trading Scheme has two sides to it for BREAZE – the smooth AND the crunchy.
Watch Rudd backflipping like a pro! The first is that we’ve been campaigning for the last year to have this dog of a package turfed out. It took a good idea – a price on carbon – and turned it into what Ross Garnaut described as the worst public policy exercise in Australia’s history. From this point of view, it’s a real victory for all the climate groups like BREAZE who got together and campaigned hard against it. So what are they putting in its place? Astonishingly, nothing at all! The issue that Kevin Rudd described as “the greatest moral challenge of our generation” can wait for another three years before the government gets around to doing anything about it. And that’s after the two and half years since Kev’s election in which they’ve also done nothing. The only plan left on the table that will introduce a carbon price into the economy any time soon was initially proposed by Ross Garnaut and is now being pushed in the parliament by The Greens (full details here) It’s an interim carbon levy of $23 per tonne of carbon, beginning this year. Low and middle income households will be compensated for any price rises. Polling has showed that 72% of Australians want the government to negotiate with the Greens on the package but until now the offer has fallen on deaf ears. I should point out that BREAZE does not promote particular political parties, it supports good climate policy, no matter which party comes up with it. Late developmentsSome polling done by The Australian shows that Rudd's backflip hasn't gone unnoticed by the general public. And there is some good analysis on the newspoll climate aspects here. Half of Labor voters disapprove of the decision to back away from emissions trading, and the majority of all voters disapprove.
http://www.smh.com.au/ WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?Contact our local MP, Catherine King, and tell her you want her government to negotiate with The Greens on the proposal. You can choose the way to contact her that you feel most comfortable with:
Our page on Resources for Contacting MPs contains some useful tips for letter writing. Write a letter The Courier. Email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Ensure your letter is less than 200 words. Include your full name and contact details as the editor will phone you to confirm its legitimacy. It’s useful for us to know what our members are up to, so if you have a moment please drop me a line and let me know how you went. Andrew Bray – 5329 1730 or 0421 379 646 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it MORE INFORMATION |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 May 2010 02:37 |