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Combet fudging the carbon tax question
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Greg Combet has learnt quickly in his new role as Parliamentary Secretary to Penny Wong — no matter what the question is, the answer involves the Liberals. Listening to Combet on Radio National this morning, you could almost hear him turning the page to his Talking Points on why the Liberals need to reveal their position, why the Coalition is divided, why this is the real question that Malcolm Turnbull needs to answer. Neither Wong nor Combet have yet explained exactly what additional certainty business will get if the legislation is rushed through this year, given they’ve now delayed the whole emissions trading scheme a year, and extended the target range from 5-15% to 5-25%, and won’t be narrowed down until after the Copenhagen meeting. But that’s all politics and no one can complain too much about that. We all know the Government’s main ambition in this exercise is to attack Malcolm Turnbull. It’s a bit different when Greg Combet resorts to outright deception. This morning he had a Talking Points moment and shifted mid-answer to bagging the Opposition. “Greg Hunt was out yesterday canvassing a carbon tax,” he told Fran Kelly. “I mean, these debates have been had. They’ve been decided…” Hunt had done nothing of the sort. The only people canvassing a carbon tax currently is the Government. The first year of the CPRS will operate as with a fixed price and an unlimited number of permits. There won’t be any need for permit trading because you can simply buy some from the Government. The permits won’t be bankable, either. Just like a carbon tax. Hunt pointed this out on Sky’s AM Agenda program yesterday and invited Combet to respond. Combet, after all, like others in the Government, had been bagging a carbon tax up until recently. Combet clearly didn’t have a clue what to say.
It was a bit like the guy in Spinal Tap insisting “these ones go up to 11.” To suggest that pointing out that the first year of the Government’s scheme will operate as a carbon tax amounts to “canvassing a carbon tax” would appear to be, well, lying. Combet did it in the heat of a debate and that is understandable. He was put on the spot and didn’t have a comeback. But to trot that line out again this morning doesn’t augur well for the quality of forthcoming debate on the minor issue of climate change. Combet and Wong are also repeatedly claiming that there are multiple shadow ministers on the issue. Well, there’s Hunt, who has environment and climate change, and Andrew Robb, who handles ETS issues. That’s it. On the Government side there’s Wong and Combet, and they contend with the occasional intervention of Peter Garrett (perhaps the only minister who genuinely wants to address climate change). But in fact Martin Ferguson, representing the fossil fuel industry, is the more important minister for the ETS, and has been the go-to man and friend at court for Big Carbon. Wong’s not in a position to complain about divided responsibilities on the other side. |
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18 Comments
BernardK: It seems more difficult to find you on the new website. Why can’t your name be in bold type? As in easier to find. You are the first person I look for on Crikey so what about it?
Hi Venise… The new website has a page dedicated to every author… so the quickest place to find the latest Bernard Keane is on the Bernard Keane page.
Oh God! Do they all go to the same speech school? I could have sworn I heard Kevin Rudd s[peaking here.
Thanks a lot Jeff. Umm do I need to ask you how to find this page? Please be tolerant. When it comes to computers I’m intellectually challenged.
I recently attended a talk that Combet gave to (mostly) ALP members and I experienced a little of the politics-by-numbers that Keane describes here. Combet reeled off a monotone attack on the Liberals and a routine defence of Rudd Labor that gave every appearance of having been reeled off at least a hundred times before. I wouldn’t expect a politician to make an original speech at every such occasion but there is a need to be more open and free-flowing.
No attempt was made to give it life or interest and no questions were taken from the audience. It came across as pure machine politics - a machine that is concerned only with putting out the ‘message’ and not in engaging with the voters and debating their concerns.
Jeff: I did it via ‘search’ then took my pick of subject. Is that what you meant? Many thanks for your help.
Well Mr Keane - you are still blind-sided by Rudd the dud, but at least you have sussed out the nonsense being peddled by Wong and Combet.
Thanks for this piece which helps me - and hopefully others - better understand this ETS nonsense
Graeme Lewis, you have been forced to come out from behind your ‘Ruddthedud’ moniker but your sprays are as drearily predictable, and as content-free, as ever.
Venise, just click the links I posted. Here it is “in the raw”: http://www.crikey.com.au/author/bernardkeane/
My usual cynical line is that Combet is as hamstrung on ETS as John Hewson was on the GST. No matter the credentials behind MPs they’re confined by party line and no doubt portfolios beyond their capabilities. Hewson was an economics guru who couldn’t get his head around tax reform Liberal-style sparking widespread use of the “What do I Say When I’m Asked” rescue pro formas that leave them and us none the wiser for the question. Wong has got the global warming ETS thingy well under wraps but at slow revs per syllable can’t sell it. Combet’s like Hewson and just doesn’t get it which is why the GFC is as good a reason as any for Rudd to put it on the back-burner - no pun intended.
The Spinal Tap line alone was worth the read.
It takes two to tango though and no mention here of the almost invisible or rather inaudible and ever even handed Fran Kelly……
Bet she wouldn’t be so silent had she been interviewing Andrew Robb.
Oh! Actually she wasn’t.
Contrast with Keey O’Brien’s ‘interview’ of Malcolm Turnbull last night.
ABC News and Current Affairs……what a farce!
Jeff, sorry I’m so late but I’ve been so busy. How did you do that? Do I have to do that then bookmark it? I told you I was hopeless. Thanks for your help.
Venise: Yeah, you can bookmark it if you like. Every author has their own page of stories, just click on their name where it’s listed on an article (on the various index pages or on the story page itself).
Jeff: I’ve been on the go like you wouldn’t believe. Yes, It’s just the way I used to do it before the change. I think my problem has been that the author’s name isn’t as obvious as it was before. Not being a patient soul, I click onto politics and can’t find the name. Then I do what all sane level-headed people do; I panic, and being hopeless with computers, I panic again. Just like a squirrel in a mouse-wheel. Whereas, if I were to take it slowly I’d be much better off.
You have been more than kind and helpful. Something I very much appreciate.
Cheers
Venise
Jeff, I’ve got one more question. Does Crikey keep a copy-somewhere out in the ethersphere-of one’s comments?
Cheers.
Venise: There’s no single spot on the website where you can list someone’s comments, no. If you’re concerned about the missing two weeks of comments from immediately before the site went up, they’ll be imported soon.
Jeff: Finally sorted out how to work this website.
Yes, I was thinking this; also how do I go about finding something I wrote about…let’s think. Trout Fishing in Victoria’s High Country, which I think I wrote somewhere between Jan ‘08 and Mar 09. I know I wrote something about the subject but can’t think of actual words and beyond going back to the archive section I haven’t got a clue.
Well it isn’t Trout fishing, it was horse-racing and it would have been written about six to eleven months ago. It concerned the criminal callousness of jumps racing. (I actually printed a copy of it so that’s okay) But otherwise how would I run it to earth?
If I didn’t have a copy of this comment I wouldn’t have a clue where to begin.
Sorry Jeff. You shouldn’t have been so kind as to help me, because I’ve got another question. What does imported mean? As in ‘imported soon’.