Editorial: Crucial week in Australian climate policy

So, the ETS senate vote is nearly here, and all the indications are that it will be voted down - but for nearly all the wrong reasons.

The barking mad Greens will vote it down because they don't believe the two-errors-in-four-words Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme goes far enough. In the fantasy world inhabited by Bob Brown and his ilk, environmental issues trump anything and everything, and the cost to the average Australian is just the price that has to be paid, despite the fact that nothing Australia does will make the slightest difference to the climate. It is amazing that anyone votes for the Greens, because if they actually stopped to think about it, a vote for the Greens is like a turkey voting for Christmas. Green politics does not care about people, or their welfare - in fact it despises humanity. It only cares about the imaginary Gaia, the god to which we should all make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Liberals will vote it down because they are waiting for Penny Wong to listen to some of their "amendments", dangling the carrot that they might vote for it next time around. Furthermore, Malcolm Turnbull is desperately trying to appear more green than Rudd, as Andrew Bolt points out. As we all know, this is the completely the wrong direction for the Coalition to be taking, but Turnbull is in such strife politically that he probably is more concerned about his own future than doing the right thing for Australia.

The Nationals are the only party that will vote down this legislation for the right reasons, namely:

• it will achieve no benefit whatsoever for the climate;
• it is nothing more than a politically correct gesture towards environmentalism;
• it is a stealth tax dressed up as a "scheme" and has huge revenue generating potential for the government, and which smacks of wealth redistribution; and,
  
• it will cost the Australian people dear, in terms of employment, competitiveness and standard of living, for decades to come.

As mentioned yesterday, every parliamentarian in Canberra should be forced to read Quadrant Online's ETS Forum from beginning to end, and ACM urges readers to email links to these articles to their local senators.

The public still appear ambivalent about the ETS and climate change in general. I fear that it may take the introduction of this dreadful legislation, and the doubling of energy prices, for the electorate to realise the horrible mistake they have made. Again, readers of this blog are encouraged to raise awareness of this issue as widely as they can. Until the public realise the seriousness of this, Australia will sleepwalk into oblivion.