Climate dominates Australian politics
Updated
Climate change politics have dominated the start of a new year in the Australian Parliament. Australians go to the polls later this year, to deliver a verdict on the Rudd Labor government. The economy is bound to remain the single biggest issue for Australians. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's pledge to act on climate change was also a major reason for his election win in November 2007. Now, the opposition has put up an alternative policy, just as the public appears to be warming to a new opposition leader.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speakers: Tony Abbott, Australia's Opposition leader; Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister; Christine Milne, Greens Party climate spokeswoman
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MOTTRAM: Opinion polls have showed Australians are less worried about the climate now than three years ago. Copenhagen produced a mere shadow of a global agreement, climate sceptics have been emboldened by scandals over the climate change case and in Australia the Rudd government has faced criticism for failing to clearly explain it's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme -- its plan for a market-based solution to encourage a low carbon economy. But Kevin Rudd has called it a 'wicked problem, the greatest moral challenge of our time.' And his political credibility is linked to delivering his response. For his opponents, it's therefore an important target.
ABBOTT: He is stuck with imposing on the Australian people, on the necessities of life of the Australian people, a great big tax.
MOTTRAM: Tony Abbott, Opposition leader for just two months, has chanted that mantra constantly during that time. He's now used the resumption of Parliament to release his own climate change policy.
ABBOTT: It's a better policy than the government's because it's simpler, cheaper and more effective way of addressing this issue than anything this government can do.
MOTTRAM: At the centre of his plan is an emissions reductions fund to pay for incentives to boost the use of solar energy and soil carbon. Mr Abbott says it will cut emissions by as much as the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme -- five per cent by 2020 -- but will cost less. He also claims that where the Prime Minister's policy could turn out the lights in Australia's major cities, his won't.
ABBOTT: It directly tackles emissions without imposing new costs on business, new costs on consumers and a new threat to Australian jobs.
MOTTRAM: But by setting no cap on national carbon emissions, and by handing out taxpayers funds as incentives for adopting low carbon technologies, rather than opting for a carbon trading market, Mr Abbott has quickly attracted criticism. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
RUDD: This climate con job is a fail, fail, fail. That is the bottom line when you contrast the two schemes. Mr Speaker, it doesn't work, it slugs taxpayers instead of polluters and on top of that, it's unfunded.
MOTTRAM: It's also been panned by critics like the Australian Greens party, for letting industry off the hook for failing to introduce a market signal in the form of a carbon price that would, its argued, give business certainty and push the low carbon transition. The Greens have also proposed a way of breaking the current political deadlock that's prevented passage of the government's legislation. Greens climate spokesperson Senator Christine Milne says it's not just critical for Australia, but for the international politics of climate change too.
MILNE: It's very clear that the international situation is deadlocked, unclear how we're going to move forward. Mexico is 12 months away. So now the issue has to be how do we move forward in Australia. The Greens have put forward a proposal for a two year interim carbon price of 20 dollars a tonne based on 2005 levels. That would enable us to have a two year negotiation with the government, in the context of the global negotiations sorting themselves out as well. But the key thing that this would do is give the community and in particular the business community the certainty of knowing that there is a carbon price and it's going to continue.
MOTTRAM: And that is now looking like a proposal with potential. Twice last year the Rudd government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation was rejected by a hostile Senate. Now, introducing the bill to Parliament for a third time, the government has dropped it's refusal to deal with the Greens and is in serious negotiation with them to try to get the numbers it needs in the Senate. There is a lot at stake for the Rudd government on the issue. But there's just as much riding on the issue for Tony Abbott. Climate change policy was the cause of the split in the Opposition last year that sealed the downfall of his predecessor and saw Mr Abbott suddenly elevated to a position that could, inside a year, make him Prime Minister.
