Australia Rejects Climate Cap-and-Trade Bill — Senators voted 42 to 30 against it: “It is a dog of a plan”
Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Australia’s Senate rejected the government’s climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election.
Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade.
Rudd, who needs support from seven senators outside the government to pass laws through the upper house, can resubmit the bill after making amendments. A second rejection after a three-month span would give him a trigger to call an election.
…
“We may lose this fight, but this issue will not go away,” Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told the Senate in Canberra. “Australia cannot afford for climate change to be unfinished business.”
Five members from the Australian Greens party sought bigger cuts to emissions while the opposition coalition and independent Senator Nick Xenophon wanted to wait for further studies on the plan’s impact on the economy.
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“Australia going it alone before Copenhagen will not make a jot of difference,” Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said. “It is a dog of a plan and we will not support it in its current form.”
Read the complete article at Bloomberg
Alan the Brit (02:17:56) : As I suspected, it is only in the UK the politicians are a bunch of self-agrandising, conceited, duplicitous, venal, mendacious, scientifically ignorant bone idle born out of wedlock half-wits with a smile on both faces, (have I missed something out?) who can’t be bothered to think things through properly!
Nope. That is an accurate description of our lot in the U.S.A. too…
Though I think you left out vain, condescending, deceitful, and power hungry… Oh, and too lazy to actually read the laws they pass.
(After a couple of $Trillion in non-read laws, 1000+ pages dropped on folks a few hours before the vote: I’m all in favor of a constitutional amendment to require all bills be read aloud at a normal speaking pace in session with all members of congress in attendance. We’d get a lot fewer, and much better, laws that way.)
I once was “ground crew” on a hot air balloon. The passenger was a U.S. Senator IIRC (Kennedy sycophant wana-be named Tierny or Tunny or some such).
We got him loaded in the basket and basic safety instruction given including pointing out the very large, very hot, and very loud burners right over his head. His brilliant scientific question: “Oh, does the hot air make it go?” The “bubble” of secret service, personal aides, and other hangers on around him would guarantee no contact with reality would ever happen…
After a couple of added gems indicating a complete lack of understanding of anything at all related to physics, chemistry, engineering, or any other technical field; I found a reason to be somewhere that did not involve being in earshot of the guy…
Realizing that the defeat of the bill in Australia may have been more the result of politics rather than a discussion of scientific issues, I sincerely hope that the Senate votes down Obama’s Cap & Trade bill.
As a climate rationalist, I am relieved we have a little more time to allow many more Australians to discover what damage was, and still is, being planned to damage our nation’s economy for no sensible or scientific reason.
The minister in question, a Ms Wong, is incapable of providing a satisfactory answer to even the most basic question about AGW, but is willing to wreak havoc on our (coal and gas dependent) economy on that basis.
She has been unable to argue past mouthing robotic chants about the ‘science is settled’, and announcing an imminent ‘tipping point’ which keeps receding like her desert mirage.
Both PM Rudd and Ms Wong are no friends of Australia – anyone want ’em?
One correction in your article.
You have miss spelled Senator Wong’s name it is correctly spelled
N.O.N.G.
Urban Dictionary: nong
When this AGW fraud is eventually exposed there will be a huge outcry from the deluded masses. The politicians will blame the scientists, and they in turn will blame a hyped media.
The msm has lost all credibility because they refuse to allow any serious debate on this issue.
Still, the weather might be in our favor by next March, when a double disolution election could be held. With a cold PDO, a blank sun and a dwarf El Nino, it should give our side lots to cheer about.
tallbloke (01:48:50) :
“Time to woo some meeja celebs with big mouths.”
Can anyone think of any with a brain though?
Re Michael (03:14:44)
Penny Wong’s qualifications to be Australia’s Climate Change Minister.
A lawyer who can say a lot about nothing in a dreadful monotone.
UK Sceptic (02:31:26) :
Alan the Brit, I couldn’t have said that better. Might we be related?
There seem to be a few Brits agreeing with Alan’s comment. We can’t all be related, can we?
Can we???
Everyone thinks that this dispute over the future of mankind will be settled peacefully thru voting, etc. It won’t be. There is too much at stake.
Michael (03:14:44) :
Penny Wong has zero in the way of scientific credentials.
Full details at http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=%28Id:handbook/allmps/00aou%29;rec=0;
“Second only to China, the opportunities for work in a country with an exceptional quality of life is attracting thousands of British migrants to Australia every year,”
They have to move somewhere, GB is turning into Meca
“Allan (01:23:41) :
The best thing that will happen is that over the next three months the Australian general public will get better exposure to both sides of the argument.
If the legislation is voted down in November the earliest they can have an election is in March (Have to allow time to close the parliament, set the date etc.etc)
The last time Aust. went to a double dissolution election it was over another superficially popular topic a national ID card. At the end of that election the Hawke Labor Govt just squeaked home and the topic that the election was called over was subsumed by a run for Federal Parliament by the Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson (why is it the closer you get to the equator the more colorful the politicians are?).
We never did get a national ID card as the voters were exposed to both sides of the argument and glaring holes were found in the legislation during the wait for the election.
This means that the Rudd Govt. re-election is now dependant on what happens in Copenhagen in December.
If the big emitters walk away from an international agreement then why was the Rudd Govt getting its knickers into a knot to get a ETS passed.
If it is just a token agreement at Copenhagen, ditto.
So Rudd’s future is in the hands of China and India.
Extra time for the public to reflect on the increase or not of global temperature vs the increase in CO2 will not help the alarmists cause.
And if you guy’s and gals in the Northern Hemisphere could organise a really big deep winter during the Olympics in Vancouver it would be much appreciated.”
You (We) do have a national ID card, it’s called a driver’s license.
“John Trigge (02:11:59) :
A recent street poll in Australia asked the question “What does ETS mean”.
Although the responses shown on TV were possibly biased towards the ridiculous responses for entertainment’s sake, they showed many people with no idea of even what the acronym stood for, never mind what the legislation would accomplish.
So much for Australians voting for and expecting an ETS.
I keep sending anti-AGW articles to my local Federal member of Parliament but he is toeing the party line and voting for an ETS; they just don’t want the one that the Labor party is pushing.”
It surprises me not because the media here in Australia is saturated with pro-AGW propaganda. Another indicator of complete stupidity, or just a plain and simple lack of interest, of many poeple is that we recently had the pleasure of a full Moon with Jupiter shining just below it. Awesome sight, I have some great pictures of it albeit with a 50mm lens. I went to a local shop to buy some wine and asked the two young people there had they looked at the Moon this particular night as the bright star below was Jupiter. The two, he was chatting her up…so I guess they were “distracted”, looked at me as if I was from Mars, and looking at each other and then back at me through their sideways glancing eyes and in unison saying “Nnnnnnnnnno……” LOL I have to admit, afterwards I had a little laugh about it.
Mondo,
Senator fielding is an engineer, so yes he does understand the scientific method, indeed he has demonstrated this through his questioning of the science underpinning AGW. To my knowledge Fielding is one of only two members of parliament (upper or lower houses) that has any formal training in science. The other being Dennis Jenson from Western Australia and he has a PhD in Physics. Both of these men have openly questioned the science underpinning AGW. The remainder are lawyers, accountants, etc, so it is little wonder that these other members of parliament lack the background to properly question the science underpinning AGW.
Michael (03:14:44) :
I’ve said it before…who is Penny Wong??? And why is she in charge of such an important issue. 99% of Australians would never have heard of her before Rudd formed his front bench and if her plan goes through 22million people are going to be significantly affected. I honestly would like to know what her scientific credentials are and life experience is that equips her to hold this portfolio?
She’s a lawyer.
Penny Wong cut her political teeth in the NSW forests debate of the mid to late 90’s working for the CFMEU forestry division. She has a reputation as a tough negotiator and is nobody’s fool. She is also a micromanager of her staff and department, i.e. a control freak, just like her boss K RUDD. I’m reliably informed that she has her head around the portfolio including hte international aspects. However I doubt that she has a strong scientific understanding of the issue as it is well beyond her training and work experience. I also doubt her ability to think outside the square especially where scientific logic needs to be employed rahter than the legal logic of always deferring to authority.
“Peter Stroud (03:16:26) :
Great news. As a sceptical Brit I wish our politicians had as much sense as the Aussies. Well done.”
Please don’t give credit where credit isn’t due nor justified. This “fight” isn’t over and all parties will be “negotiating a compromise”, just in time for Copenhagen.
With this ETS, GST will rise to 12.5% in ~2013, same rate as in NZ (And all these schemes appear to be pushed to be in place but ~2015. Why? What happens in 2015? A significant solar minimum as the Russians predicted?). May even go to 15%, same as VAT in the UK. But at this stage I don’t know if this GST will be applied to every thing in Australia as it is currently in NZ. Most people who voted for this KRudd747 gummint just don’t understand what their elected reps are doing/going to do. It’s pretty scary…
Mfg jobs are already going to China. In fact the NSW gummint actually sources it’s uniforms and cothing, now, from China when previously it was made locally. Holden received AU$200mil “corporate welfare handout” and last year Toyota Australia were given AU$36mil to develop and Austrakian made “hybrid” when Toyota *already* has the technology.
I work for a company that has secured Govn’t contracts and must do work in Australia with an Australian workforce. I can see an ETS will allow some “room to move” on that, sending power consumption overseas (China).
Jimmy Haigh (04:13:05) : Your comment is awaiting moderation
“Can anyone think of any (media celebs) with a brain though?
”
Of course I can! I was thinking about certain pop stars…
Matt Bennett
I’m afraid old chap it you that needs to change; I think if you check the comments on here it is you that’s out of step. I am reading Pilmers book now and if you think here is wrong then you are in fact calling into question thousands of peer reviewed papers, none of which have been countered scientifically. All Pilmer has done is join it altogether so we can make sense of it. Makes far more sense than anything from the IPCC or any politician infected with AGW syndrome
Congratulations! Free from idiocy…Wish you the best of luck to beat the global warming fools.
And here is another example of the pro-AGW media here in Australia going OTT on a warm body of air moving over Sydney…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydney-to-heat-up-on-sunday-20090813-ejkv.html
“Sydneysiders can prepare for a roast this Sunday, with the temperature expected to soar to 28 degrees.
The temperature is forecast to be 11 degrees above the August average on Sunday, with a top of 28 degrees in the city and a possible 29 in the western suburbs, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Steve Stefanac said.”
Well, I guess it is possible, anything “dragging” warm air from the north will, errm, warm things up a bit. We have one or two days where it’s a bit warm, and many more days where it’s below “average”, but there is always more emphasis on the warmer days on the news and all is forgotten about the early start to Autumn and Winter, early start to the snow season and almost no flies last Summer here in Sydney.
Don’t let Rudd or Wong read this . . .
Anthropogenic Continental Drift: An Incoherent Truth
http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1668
Hi Ian Middleton, don’t think we were introduced but I was among the Sceptics protesters. I thought it went pretty well. To all Aussies here I would like to see more of us at these protests if it’s at all possible for you to come.
Ahh Matt Bennett, how nice of you to describe Rudd and Co. and half the Opposition so aptly. At least Senator Fielding can think for himself. As to the children, teach them critical thinking not politically correct dogma and seudo religious prattle that some how passes for science.
“Scepticism is the highest of duties, and blind faith the one unpardonable sin.”
So wrote Thomas Huxley, one of the great minds of the scientific age.
DENIER POWER!
( I think it is time to embrace the denier label and spin the meaning, in that we denied those who would mislead us in order to gain power over us the opportunity to do so. We are the deniers! )
Politicians are starting to get that “Roo in the Headlights” look.
Except for Penny Wong, she will get hit by the Road Train.
The only reason Cap and Trade is popular with anybody is that very few people actually know what it means but it sure doesn’t sound much like a carbon tax. Yet that’s what it is. In fact it’s worse, because there are bookies getting a percentage. If there was a poll about the popularity of a plain old carbon tax I wonder how many of these pseudo planet-savers would still be left in. In other words, just how much of that polled political correctness is pure hypocrisy?
Senator Nick Minchin’s speech in opposition to the bill is worth reading:-
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/it_should_have_been_defeated_because_its_insane/