So Australia has almost got to the point of establishing a price on carbon emissions with the House of Representatives passing legislation this morning and passage through the Senate being little more than a formality.
Carbon tax
Crikey Says: Never mind the kiss, how ’bout that carbon tax?
Yes, in the context of their relationship that embrace is quite momentous, considering the two can’t usually manage to look each other in the eye. But not quite as momentous as say, the passage of the actual Clean Energy legislation.
Mirabella helps pass carbon tax
Crikey media wrap: Despite Tony Abbott declaring he will kill the carbon price if elected, PM Julia Gillard will today get Australia’s first significant policy to cut carbon emissions passed through parliament.
Question time: offline and out of line, but they’ve still got it
Ah, House of Representatives question time, that 2pm trip back to Year 10 assembly in which the nation’s best political minds joust unceasingly for petulant advantage — and that’s just the limelight addicts in the front row of the press gallery.
Green day: the real architects behind the carbon tax bill
On a reliably frigid Canberra morning holed up in a ramshackle hotel bereft of any kind of heating, the sound of Anthony Albanese seeping out of the clock radio to claim total credit for the passage of the carbon tax seemed too much to bear.
Why companies that worm their way into a carbon tax are winners
The concept of irony just doesn’t do justice to the twists, turns, deceit and rank hypocrisy that has accompanied the long, slow road to the introduction of a price on carbon in Australia, writes Dr Richard Denniss, executive director of Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute.
One last pitch to avoid the carbon reality
For much of the past decade, and particularly the last three years, the cheapest and most effective means of reducing carbon liability has been to try and avoid it altogether. Some are still pushing for it, says Giles Parkinson.
Crikey Says: The calm before the storm
If only politicians could be trusted to acknowledge that, as Possum lamented last week: “Not everything about government is about electoral politics.”
carbon price 
Australia’s carbon tax battle: where it fits into the global war
When it comes to climate policies, the Left and Right parties in Australia have adopted virtually wholesale the positions taken by Left and Right parties in America, write Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus.
Abbott’s lies keep mounting in the climate tax debate
In early May, Tony Abbott claimed the carbon tax will make it difficult for Australia to remain a first world economy. It is just one of many lies and Abbott’s negativity has reached farcical proportions, says Larvatus Prodeo.
Crikey Says: Scaring the pants off consumers
So what you’re trying to say, Mark McInnes, is that consumers are so scared witless about the carbon tax that their wallets have been hermetically sealed. Uh-huh…
Essential: we’ll cop a carbon tax with compensation
The federal government has failed to sway those opposed to a carbon tax, though more than half of voters are prepared to support it with compensation for lower income households, new polling finds.
Sideshow Alley: walking out and shutting up in question time
It’s typical of our national debate that on the day the prime minister introduces a historic climate policy to the parliament, the Opposition would be busy pulling out political stunts to steal some of the spotlight.
Fight against pipeline the new ‘normal’ in climate change politics
In Washington, the epic effort to prevent the construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from the US to Canada is reaching a crescendo, writes David Ritter in London.
Crikey Says: Speak up, Malcolm, we can’t hear you
Tony Abbott had this to say about the government’s Clean Energy Future legislation yesterday:
PM’s carbon bill met with empty rhetoric from opposition
Crikey media wrap: Carbon tax: it’s been the biggest issue of Julia Gillard’s prime ministership and yesterday she introduced the historic bill into parliament.
Lessons learnt from the solar industry subsidy
Who would have thought that less than a year out from the start of Australia’s carbon tax the nation’s solar sector would be in disarray? James Thomson reflects on how our solar industry lost its shine.
Australia’s green groups fight everything but criticism against them
Throughout 2011, Australia’s best-funded environment organisations have been united in support of the Labor government’s push to establish a carbon price. Not everyone thinks this is a good thing, writes Leigh Ewbank.
Denniss: carbon price and the truth about ‘truthiness’
The introduction of a carbon price is an important step towards reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, writes Dr Richard Denniss, executive director of The Australia Institute.
Parkinson: coal is the new black
Indian-owned coal company Gujarat NRE warns that a carbon tax will cause stratospheric price rises for beer, bread, shirts and petrol, writes Giles Parkinson.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Strange times indeed in Oz politics
Crikey readers have their say.
Carbon tax: for Abbott it’s appalling policy or appalling hypocrisy
Even if Abbott wins a 2013 election it would likely be mid-2015 before any carbon price legislation could potentially pass a joint sitting of both houses, writes Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist at The Australia Institute.
Parkinson: … or keep calm and stick with it
One of the great assumptions of the calls to invest large amounts of GDP into actions to reduce emissions, protect our natural capital, and become more resource efficient was that by saving the planet we could save the global economy.
Kohler: surplus stupidity and the case for delaying carbon tax …
We are about to get a lesson in the absurdity of political discourse: the government is going to be accused of “breaking a promise” if a global downturn prevents the budget from returning to surplus by 2013. Or if it delays the carbon tax.
Galaxy: 56-44 to Coalition
The latest Galaxy federal poll echoes other recent polling, with the Coalition leading 56-44 in the two-party preferred. Meanwhile, only 37% support a carbon tax, writes William Bowe.
