Via Andrew Bolt in email, some surprising revelations about New Zealand’s Prime minister and his previous opinion of the ETS. It appears he has done a complete about face from his very strong opinions of 2005.
The Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, (shown above) has just introduced the world’s first Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) today for new Zealand. It is not going over well with voters.
This is the same man who, when in opposition, described anthropogenic climate change as a hoax on the 10th may, 2005.
See Hansard debates at:
EXCERPTS:
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) : “I rise on behalf of the National Party to give the good news to the people of New Zealand—that is, the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill is a load of rubbish and the National Party will not be supporting it, for very, very good reasons indeed.”
…
“Yet here we are down in New Zealand, a very little country with about 0.2 percent of the world’s emissions, putting a self-imposed straitjacket on our businesses, and waving a huge flag that says: “Foreign investment, don’t come anywhere near us. Australia is over there—the West Island. Go over there to pour your dollars in.” To the Chinese we are saying: “Come in and buy as much coal as you like from our West Coast. We’ll sell it to you and you can burn it without a carbon charge—but, by the way, to those back here in Aotearoa New Zealand we will be slapping on a carbon charge and you won’t be able to operate.”
…
“This is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming—and I am somewhat suspicious of it—is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem. Even if it is a problem, it will be delayed for about 6 years. Then it will hit the world in 2096 instead of 2102, or something like that. It will not work.”
===========================
Meanwhile, carbon trading in the USA flatlines.
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Well, 2005 was before all that robust science was published by the IPCC in 2007; it was before Al Gore’s “inconvenient truth,”; before Pachauri’s efforts to attack glacier critics as “voodoo scientists,”;before Moobat’s declaring Amazongate to be “toast”; before the world learned how ancient humans caused global warming by wipping out the mammoths. A guy’s just gotta go with the science.
I’ll paraphrase something an ex-prime minister of Australia, Paul Keating once said..
Never come between a politician and a bucket full of money.
The above explains this post well I think.
[SNIP], Anthony.
[Baseless name-calling. ~dbs, mod.]
People don’t want to be fleeced. The tyrants want to go against the will of the people. Algore had problems with “what is it about no you don’t understand”
In every carbon tax scheme, there is a promise of lower energy costs. It never happens.
I can only understand this by decribing the Nats as having been captured by the bureaucracy.
There is no doubt that man made global warming skeptics are losing the battle even as they win the arguments.
John Key (May 05):
“This is a complete and utter hoax, if I may say so. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol, even if one believes in global warming-and I am somewhat suspicious of it-is that we will see billions and billions of dollars poured into fixing something that we are not even sure is a problem”
John Key (Nov 06)
“I firmly believe in climate change and always have”
“Like most New Zealanders, I take the risks posed by climate change seriously. The scientific evidence indicates that the world is getting warmer and, if this does not change, the results could be catastrophic – for our society as well as for our environment.”
John Key (Dec 08)
“I believe that human-induced climate change is occurring”
John Key (Mar 09)
“The important point here is that we have flexibility built into the system so that if the science either firms up considerably more or deteriorates, and the climate change sceptics are right, we have the ability to alter the impact on our economy”
http://intersect.ning.com/forum/topics/john-key-backtracks-on-climate
<<>>
So he is a moving target.
Whether a politician has the prerogative to change his/her mind –
or whether it is simply waffling of convenience –
is up to the reader to decide.
Climbing the greasy political pole appears to be just the same as climbing a mountain; you only get a 360 degree field of vision when you get to the top.
What has John Key seen from the top of the NZ mountain? Revenue, 360 degrees of it for as far as the eye can see! All with a built in “not my fault gov” Kyoto, AGW, Climate Change, CO2, all your fault not mine.
O yes a scam when in opposition morphs into opportunity when in power. This is quite a representative example of principles and politicians.
Got more than our share in the UK, if ours is the “Mother of all Parliaments” I am beginning to fear what we have foisted upon the world.
His cheque is in the post.
He’s a politician!! Nuff said.
Well, he didn’t need the tax revenue in 2005, you see.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.—-John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton
Heh, post seems to have gone to the dumpster.
NZ politics is strange. The “leaders” we see on the TV, those elected to represent etc, are puppets IMO. Here’s an example; Post Bank sale to ANZ. Post Bank, a wholy NZ owned and operated bank, was sold to ANZ, unpon Govn’t approval (Of course), in the early 1990’s, during the NZ economic “miracle” attributed to the Nats. ANZ promptly stripped Post Bank of it’s assets and closed it down much to the anger of the average NZer who was a Post Bank customer. Then, 2000 comes around and a Labour landslide win under Helen Clark (HC). HC, with support from “the people” starts up Kiwi Bank, a wholy NZ owned and operated bank (Wot, like Post Bank?) at every Post Shop. Now the “funny” thing is, the very same people, we usually call them Civil Servants in the UK, Aus and NZ, (Those in the halls of power you usually don’t see. I met two of these “Civil Servants” through “connections” and I was stunned at their attitude towards “the people” and their attitude to coporate asset stripping etc.) who “sold” Post Bank to ANZ also setup Kiwi Bank. Incidentally Kiwi Bank’s backend processing is done, in Australia, by WestPac, an Australian bank. ANZ owns the ATM network. ANZ also “bought” National Bank, probably under similar circumstances.
How do you know a politican is not telling the truth? Words spill out of their mouths.
Actually dbs, I didn’t call anyone any names. Try reading the comment again. Then compare the title of this piece with it’s content.
One of the last remnants of Lemuria about to sink into the abyss for ever.
Perhaps, after the harsh opposition in the whole world, bedwetters have chosen NZ like a test, to see what happens when a country applies all their creed´s beliefs.
Maybe The Goracle’s call for Milford Sound to be filled in and reclaimed as the building site for Holy See of the Church of Climatology pushed him over the edge? Maybe he has a daughter and overheard The Goracle mumbling “She’d fit the bear costume.”? Or maybe he just realized bad policy is the only get political climatology can produce.
Hopefully our New Zealand friends will see these politicians for what they are and throw them all out at the next election.
As G K Chesterton once said “Consistency is the bug-bear of small minds”
I don’t care one way or the other what this person says or said, but there’s something of a disconnect between the wording of the title, and the content of the actual quotes.
He’s expressing some suspicion about climate change, but is using the harsher ‘hoax’ language for whatever policy was being proposed at the time.
John Key is not calling climate change a “load of rubbish” or a “hoax”. He’s referring to the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill. The two are not one in the same.
The title of this piece is: New Zealand’s Prime Minister: Climate Change a “load of rubbish” and “hoax”.
But in the piece the man says: “… the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill is a load of rubbish …”.
And: ““This [the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill] is a complete and utter hoax …”.
He says about global warming (aka climate change) “… I am somewhat suspicious of it …”
It looks like the title is a mistake.
[Fixed, thanks. ~dbs]
“David Segesta says:
July 1, 2010 at 8:14 am
Hopefully our New Zealand friends will see these politicians for what they are and throw them all out at the next election.”
NZers typically vote out Govn’ts. Here in Aus and NZ, to me at least, it seems to be more a popularity event.
“carrot eater says:
July 1, 2010 at 8:25 am
I don’t care one way or the other what this person says or said, but there’s something of a disconnect between the wording of the title, and the content of the actual quotes.
He’s expressing some suspicion about climate change, but is using the harsher ‘hoax’ language for whatever policy was being proposed at the time.
Cal Barndorfer says:
July 1, 2010 at 8:39 am
John Key is not calling climate change a “load of rubbish” or a “hoax”. He’s referring to the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill. The two are not one in the same.”
And enjoying the revenue stream on the way? Yeah, I hear ya!