Government "gives up" on ETS

As Lenore Taylor points out in The Australian, Krudd & Co really can't be bothered with the ETS any more:

The best argument the scheme's chief saleswoman, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, could put when she released draft legislation last week was that it was better than nothing.

If you compare it with the way the Government argues for things it really wants to get through, such as its stimulus plan, the defence of its major policy on climate change is largely devoid of passion. It would be a strange tactic for a government still vehemently determined to get its scheme through. It is entirely consistent with a government with far bigger problems, that wants to be able to say it has tried to meet its election promise and then blame the failure on someone else, while suffering none of the potential short-term political consequences of success.

All of which raises the following awkward question: if this is supposedly the greatest challenge to humanity since the dawn of time (as we keep being told), why does it have such a low priority?

Read it here.