Australian Industry Group dumps support for ETS

It just goes from bad to worse for the Government's ETS, as the Ai Group calls for the scheme to be delayed until 2012:

Industry groups, farmers and green groups are all ramping up their opposition to the scheme.

In parliament, the opposition and the Greens have sharpened their criticism of the scheme, raising the possibility it won't get through the Senate.

The Ai Group's policy change is significant because it had previously been quite supportive of the government's plans.

The Opposition, rightly, are having a field day:

The opposition's emissions trading spokesman, Andrew Robb, said Ai Group's call for a delay was another blow to the scheme.

"The concerns of the Ai Group reflect the views of many businesses that I am meeting and what the coalition has been saying ever since Mr Rudd picked a politically-inspired, artificial start date of 2010," Mr Robb said.

"The government's scheme is going to cost jobs, it's going to kill investment and it's not going to see any reduction in carbon dioxide of any consequence.

"They've failed on all fronts. Penny Wong calls that balance; I call that total failure."

Read it here.