By Andrew Bolt
Peter van Onselen is wrong to claims sceptics didn’t like discussing climate change. In fact, what they demanded was more discussion, not censorship and media shut-ups, to achieve just what now so bemuses Peter:
How quickly things can change in politics. At the end of last year the (Australian) government’s CPRS was something most Liberals (The Conservative Party here in Australia) wanted off the political agenda. Whether it was Malcolm Turnbull (the former Conservative leader) and his supporters who wanted it pasted into law so they could get back to talking about debt and deficits or the climate change sceptics who wanted the legislation defeated, conservatives didn’t particularly like discussing climate change.
The reason was simple: opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority of the public supported action on climate change and (Australian Prime Minister) Rudd’s CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) had become the conventional wisdom for what shape action should take….
The government has (now) looked to shift the policy agenda on to matters other than climate change for two reasons: it is concerned that selling the CPRS might be as complicated as selling the Goods and Services Tax was for John Hewson in 1993 and Howard in 1998. ..
For a government that ended last year urging action on climate change (the greatest moral challenge of our generation, as Rudd calls it), to focus policy attention elsewhere this year has been utterly brazen… The risk for Rudd is that a double dissolution guarantees climate change is more likely to become the central issue of the campaign, exactly what the Coalition now appears to be wanting.
UPDATE 1
Even greens are coming to their senses, scared by the now-imminent prospect of an economy with no emissions-belching industry:
IT’S the Queensland town renowned for a postcard setting, caring community and laidback lifestyle … but has Maleny become too green for its own good?
As the children of a generation of tree-changers begin their working lives, Maleny is discovering that being green is no protection against that scourge of rural communities: youth unemployment….
Community concern has become so acute that even local greenies are calling for drastic action and putting out the welcome mat for new industry.
UPDATE 2
It’s telling that when Canadian commentator Mark Steyn and Canadian blogger Donna Laframboise cast around for examples of outrageously biased reporting, journalists who bought the IPCC spin and academics with a vested interest in defending the IPCC’s dodgy sources, they look to Australia - and specifically to the (Australian)ABC’s Lateline and to Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.
UPDATE 3
Global Cooling – California Now Rethinks Its Gas-Slash Laws
An admission of the fact that slashing gases is also slashing jobs:
Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California’s landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.
Supporters say they have “solid commitments” of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state’s unemployment rate drops.
Meanwhile another reminder that getting warming won’t be so awful, after all, since it’s a cold planet that’s least comfortable, as Americans have found all winter:
A winter storm continued its blizzard rage in some parts of the Mid-Atlantic region on Saturday morning, dumping nearly two feet of wet, heavy snow that cut power to about 200,000 residents, caused the roof of a private jet hangar to collapse at Washington Dulles International Airport and forced the nation’s capital into quiet hibernation.
(Via Instapundit.)
Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.
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