A refresher of Labor's machinations

After extensive policy design work and economic analysis, Rudd’s government developed the legislation for an ETS, naming it the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Although the intention was to introduce the scheme in July 2010, it was twice rejected by the Senate when the then opposition leader Malcom Turnbull lost his position to Tony Abbott, mainly over Turnbull’s support for the CPRS, and the Greens failed to support the legislation.

Rather than take up the trigger of a double dissolution election, the Rudd government instead opted, in April 2010, to defer the CPRS.

Julia Gillard deposed Rudd as prime minister in June 2010, and went to the 2010 election having infamously declared “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”. Once elected, Gillard worked diligently with a Multi-Party Committee on Climate Change comprising the government and its parliamentary supporters, including independents and the Greens. The result was the Clean Energy Future package, consisting of a successor to the CPRS (inevitably branded the carbon tax), as well as other complementary mechanisms and new agencies such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This was passed into law in 2011 with the support of the Greens.

The central element of the new ETS was that it would begin with a fixed permit price of A$23 per tonne of CO2 from July 1, 2012, and would move to a market-based pricing scheme three years later. This fixed price was a compromise between extreme views, but broadly consistent with existing projections for the European carbon price. It came badly unstuck.

First, the European carbon price collapsed, leaving Australia’s price open to being labelled as unreasonably high and likely to deliver more economic damage than environmental benefit.

Second, it opened the door for Tony Abbott to label the scheme as nothing more than a “great big tax”.

Worse followed for Labor as a result of Gillard’s decision not to play semantics and to allow the “carbon tax” label to stick. She subsequently acknowledged the terrible political price she paid for not arguing against a fixed carbon price being labelled a tax.

Not only was the government unable to sell the benefit of its policy, it failed to overcome the accusation that Gillard had misled the electorate in the election campaign. Abbott was then elected in 2013, with the axing of the tax as a key commitment. He executed that task in July 2014.

http://grattan.edu.au/news/the-latest-turn-in-the-twisty-history-of-labors-clima...

____ wrote on Nov 20^th, 2015 at 9:45am:

Greens went against their own principles in their over zealous attempt to influence policy. Pathetic greens.

sir prince duke alevine wrote on Nov 20^th, 2015 at 9:46am:



Yet the question was Labor part of the last election?
Their inability to argue their policies empowered Abbott.
Same as Shorten's inability to articulate will empower others.

It's up to the Greens to gain lost Labor vote rather than have it go to the conservatives.

____ wrote on Nov 20^th, 2015 at 9:51am:

By voting against their principles and giving rise to tony abbott?

Labor didn't partake in the last election?