The climate and environment Budget for 2010-11 is a dull affair marked by program cuts, clean-ups and a marked lack of policy direction, writes Andrew Macintosh.
Emissions Trading Scheme
Rudd’s greatest challenge: surviving his ETS somersault
Rather than selling the ETS to the Australian public, Rudd was busy playing wedge politics with Malcolm Turnbull. Now his decision to dump it will cost him dearly in both electoral and larger political terms, writes Rodney Tiffen.
The climate change bombardment — it pays to co-ordinate your fire
You may have read during the week of a micro-revolt by Labor MPs over the Government’s abandonment of the CPRS. Except there was more to the bombardment by outraged younger voters than met the eye…
Clean energy sector bets everything on RET legislation after demise of CPRS
Abandoning an emissions trading scheme has frozen the renewable energy market and the Government’s “flawed” clean energy targets are stifling investment in large-scale projects like wind farms and solar generation.
Antony Green: The little ETS that couldn’t
Technically, the ETS legislation was a double dissolution trigger. So why didn’t Kevin Rudd pull the trigger? Because only the original ETS — not the amended version — could be used and that wasn’t helpful to anyone, explains Antony Green.
Henderson: Julia is Kevin’s one saving grace
Kevin Rudd is a major disappointment for supporters, from his ETS failure to wimping out on Henry Review recommendations. Only Julia Gillard has achieved reform with her My School initiative, writes Gerard Henderson.
Essential: Shelved ETS divides, Rudd fails to conquer
Voters are split on whether the Federal Government’s move to dump the Emissions Trading Scheme before the next election was a good decision, with support for Kevin Rudd collapsing.
Mungo MacCallum: On tax and the ETS, Rudd tainted by cowardice
Kevin Rudd’s tax response is good policy and good politics. But because it has come at a time when the government is perceived to be running scared, it will get less credit than it deserves.
Coorey: Malcolm the martyr
If John Howard was re-elected in 2007, we’d already have an ETS up and running. Instead, Kevin Rudd wimped out and now Malcolm Turnbull remains the only one with any guts in politics, writes Phillip Coorey.
Rudd’s a coward? You’re an idiot
Reckon Rudd’s backflip on the ETS and his unwillingness to fight a double dissolution makes him a wuss? Prepare for an onslaught of truth bombs on policy implementation timelines, Senate maths and the electoral clock from Possum Comitatus.
ETS is dead, where to now?
With the ETS being consigned to the dustbins of history, the pressing question climate campaigners are asking themselves is: where do we go now that politics have failed us miserably? Patrick Tombola offers one idea.
Grattan: We expect politicians to lie
Rudd may flipping u-turns all over the place — the ETS, asylum seekers, insulation — but people don’t trust Tony Abbott enough to put him in the driver’s seat, writes Michelle Grattan.
Is Rudd going to copy Abbott’s climate policy?
The dumping of the ETS leaves a large gaping wound where the government once had a climate policy. Now Wayne Swan’s suggestions sound distinctly similar to Abbott’s controversial plan, writes Robert Merkel.
Fran Kelly: Political satire is no longer a joke
From Rudd ditching his grand ETS plan to Tony Abbott criticising him for it and the Greens dropping the ball on climate policy, this week in politics could have been an episode of Hollowmen, writes Fran Kelly.
Shanahan: Why the ETS was doomed to fail
Kevin Rudd’s climate policy was never going to work because it was all about show, not effective and practical policy, says Dennis Shanahan. Simplifying climate change into a “moral challenge” just created a series of errors.
Standing up for nothing leaves Labor open to attack
If asylum seekers and the abandonment of a charter of rights hadn’t made it clear, the retreat on an ETS confirms this is not a government prepared to die in a ditch over matters of high principle.
Killing the ETS was a team effort
Rudd and Wong can’t take all the credit for killing the ETS: every news outlet that ran dodgy polluter-commissioned modelling and op-eds from climate denialists and wingnuts can also take a bow.
Crikey Says: Rudd lacks the courage for serious reform
Two years ago, Kevin Rudd correctly observed that there was no point being in power unless power was used to achieve change. So, why does the PM search for reasons not to reform?
Rudd throws ETS in the “too hard” basket
Daily media wrap: Kevin Rudd is giving up on what he once described as “the greatest moral challenge of our time” — but is Australia’s attention span really so short? Crikey hasn’t forgotten, and neither has the world’s media.
Rudd on Rudd: I’m a coward on climate change
Less than six months ago, Kevin Rudd believed bailing on an ETS would be “political cowardice” and “an absolute failure of leadership”. Now his words have come back to haunt him, writes Jason Whittaker.
Henderson: Bugger off Malcolm, we don’t want you
There’s no way that Malcolm Turnbull should even reconsider his retirement, says Gerard Henderson. The Liberal Party don’t want an ETS and Turnbull doesn’t have the support of his party room.
Rudd has done nothing to prevent climate change
As Kevin Rudd’s first term as PM comes to an end, let’s remind ourselves of Kevin07 and his failed big green promises. Remember those? asks former climate change adviser to Tony Blair, Nick Rowley.
Where Turnbull went wrong
It wasn’t Utegate or the ETS that destroyed Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership chances and brought upon his political demise. It’s the fact that Turnbull never cared about the Liberal Party, he just cared for himself.
Have our politicians forgotten how to reform?
Reforming governments are the exception, not the rule in Australian politics. The current generation of politicians has yet to prove it can match the efforts of the Hawke-Keating-Howard years — despite facing major policy challenges.
