Coalition’s decision: neutralise or differentiate

Janet Albrechtsen Blog | The Australian

...The other strategy is to hasten more slowly and more sensibly. In other words, make support for an ETS conditional upon it being a meaningful and economically responsible action. That means telling voters that the Coalition will support an ETS if other major emitters are on the same track and then tailoring an emissions trading system that does not damage the economy.

It is an entirely different strategy to that taken by the Rudd Government. And you can bet this is the strategy that Rudd fears most. It will enable the Opposition to send a powerful message about a Labor Government willing to send Australian jobs to non-ETS countries such as China and India, a government pushing up prices and denting the hip pocket of their beloved working families all for nothing if the world’ major emitters refuse to act on climate change.

The nervous Nellys in the Coalition will tell you that the polls reveal that most people want something done on climate change, so neutralising the issue is the only way to go. Yet the more revealing poll result is that most people have no idea how an ETS operates and what it means for them. Therein rests the Opposition’s biggest opportunity for the next election.