Today is a great day not only in Australian history, but also in world history. It marks the day when people of character and sensibility pushed back against an overwrought and pointless green agenda, and pushed back in a big way. They’ve had enough, and they’ve scraped the Krudd off their shoes and are moving forward.
Tony Abbott has won the Australian election in a landslide, and vows to abolish the carbon tax as a first order of business. Abbott has declared Australia is “once more open for business” in claiming victory in Saturday’s election.
It is a huge blow to the Rudd-Gillard labor party and their green goals, which were built on a lie foisted on the Australian people. In 2010 when Gillard said “no carbon tax” in a videotaped speech that has been seen as the key moment Australians lost trust:
Then, shortly after she was elected prime minister, she acted as if those words were never spoken, and implemented a carbon tax anyway. There’s nothing worse than a liar who is oblivious to their own lies, and in my opinion, this was the catalyst that set the stage for the end of labor’s green dream as well as their dominance in government.
Abott says he will abolish the carbon tax. In an August 5th Herald Sun article:
If elected, the coalition on day one would suspend the CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corporation) and prepare legislation to shut it down permanently. It’s vowed to introduce legislation within a fortnight designed to abolish the carbon tax, and all government climate agencies associated with Labor’s clean energy laws.
From the Herald Sun today:
“Today the people of Australia have declared that the right to govern this country does not belong to Mr Rudd or to me or to his party or to ours but it belongs to you, the people of Australia,” Abbott said.
“And you will punish anyone who takes you for granted.”
Andrew Bolt wrote on his blog: “Finally, a man worthy of the office of Prime Minister – and humble enough to hope it.”
Congratulations to my friends in Australia, the Krudd is kaput and the carbon tax is going away, and almost certainly Flim Flam Flannery too. What a great day!
Cook, Ove, and Sou, this Krudd’s for you!
Meanwhile, back in the USA, the Washington Post seems oblivious to this loud message from down under (h/t to Steve Milloy):
The first thing to do is to build the cost of pollution into the price of energy through a simple carbon tax or other market-based mechanism. Though the tax revenue could be rebated right back to people, higher sticker prices for fossil fuel-derived energy would still give them reason to change behaviors and demand more energy-efficient appliances.
It’s like deju vu all over again, because Australia’s carbon tax was setup just like that, and it was flatly rejected by the people of Australia today. Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with the same madness here in the States.
UPDATE: Australian Eric Worrall writes in a short story submitted to WUWT just moments after this was published says:
Tony Abbott, the man who once described climate change as crap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott#Climate_change , has won a landslide victory in the Australian election, an election which has seen substantial swings against Labor and the Greens.
While we Australians have been disappointed by Abbott’s genuflection towards green dogma, with his promise to replace the hated carbon tax with a watered down form of carbon pricing, we live in hope that it is simply window dressing, to appease greens within his party. Abbott has given us grounds for such hope, with statements to the effect that his budget to mitigate climate change will be capped, regardless of whether the allocated funding achieves its stated goals, and a promise to tighten up the allocation of the national science budget. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/abbott-vows-to-cut-futile-research/story-fni0cx12-1226710934260
Abbott has also spoken out against Tim Flannery http://joannenova.com.au/2013/04/jobs-and-junkets-are-on-the-line-abbott-could-axe-flannery-and-the-climate-commission/ , the government doommonger general, who did more than anyone to deliver Australia’s white elephant desalination plants, with his strident support for predictions of permanent drought (end of snow, anybody?).
So its exciting times for climate skeptics down under – and potentially, a global warning for the ambitions of politicians and political parties which are getting too cosy with the greens.
Here’s what the Communist Broadcasting Corp (CBC) of Canada (AP feed) had to say……
“Under Howard, Australia — one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluters on a per capita basis — and the United States had been the only wealthy countries to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing global warming.
One of Rudd’s first acts as prime minister was to ratify the Protocol, and he became Australia’s most popular prime minister of the past three decades with his promise to introduce a carbon emissions trading scheme. His popularity fell after he failed to persuade the Senate to deliver the scheme.”
Well it’s been said that when New Zealanders emigrate to Australia, it raises the IQ of both countries. Well actually it works for most other places besides Australia.
So must have been a few Kiwis shipping across the pond to shore up that uninhabited island.
Anyhow, welcome home to our Aussie Mates; sorry it took you so long to wake up from your horrendous nightmare. I’ve been nagging at John Key, to nudge you chaps for quite a bit, and it is good news to have some help, in taking good care of the crusty side of the pizza.
George
PS First race of the America’s Cup starts, in about an hour and a half. So it’s an Aussie skipper versus a Kiwi skipper, with the Yanks paying for the Aussie, and the Arabs, paying for the Kiwis.
Larry can afford to pay for his toys, and the Kiwi taxpayers are into ETNZ for about $34meg. Let’s rumble !
Government is nothing but the gang who got put in because people couldn’t figure it out amongst themselves. think, sibling fight, parental intervention.
M Courtney on September 7, 2013 at 11:50 am
We have noticed this, in particular when desperate left wing have been winning an election … (getting in bed with power greedy ignorant pseudo green’s …)
“””””…..crosspatch says:
September 7, 2013 at 10:42 am
This makes the fourth Pacific Rim country to move from a center left to a center right government. Canada, Japan, and South Korea are the others……”””””
Well if it wasn’t for Australia, there wouldn’t be any Indian Ocean, So I don’t think of Australia as “Pacific Rim”. It central Pacific, just like NZ.
I shall now consider affirming my Australian Citizenship (through birth).
M Courtney says:
September 7, 2013 at 11:50 am
Especially if you review the statements of two (lying) politicians before Abbott:
Rather difficult to refute your point M. Courtney, especially since Gillard and her cohort are such great examples.
Meanwhile in Canada, traitor to conservatism Harper promises behind closed doors to Obama that he is going green and willing to bring in a carbon tax.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/09/06/pol-harper-canada-us-climate-change-strategy-letter-keystone.html
“I used to think of Australia as being a mythic Texas-down-under. A place largely of easy going but no-BS tolerating (except in good humor) self-reliant people.”
That’s pretty much what it seemed to be when I was there in the 90s, at least when you got away from Sydney. It’s apparently gone rapidly downhill in the last twenty years; if I read about a stupid new law in the tech media I can pretty much guess it’s a story from Australia before I even get past the headline.
@ut8t5 12:26 pm +1 for that link.
From the Australia No Carbon Tax Climate Skeptics Party Sep. 7, 2013
It is too soon to say the Green Niightmare is over.
Has the LNP woken up? Has the Public?
Congrats Aussies!
It was way past time to change the nappy down under. The warmist stench was beginning to reach all the way up here.
Good riddance to Rudd and Co. A monster government characterised by how it lurched from one disaster to the other with both eyes closed. They made frankenstein look human…
J Martin,
Economies go into and out of surplus/deficit for various reasons. A managed deficit wisely spent is better than an ill-managed economy returning a surpls. If a deficit is the result of self-defence, to deal with a recession or to make investments that promise a long-term return (like businesses borrowing to expand), then this can be wise and manageable. Australia avoided a recession, loss of jobs and a hit to GDP, while expanding health and education by spending into deficit. The Coalition did well to attain surplus during the boom years, which Labor used to save the economy when the GFC hit. That was sound economic management, as pretty much all economists here agree. International economists also agree, and point to Australia’s economy as a leading example of sound management in a crisis.
But that point is secondary to the main topic here. The Carbon Tax did not hurt the economy by any significant degree, and the main point is that by the time of the eldection, it was not even a minor issue. Probably because, like the Coalition-authored GST, which had a bigger negative impact on disposable income, the result was not what people feared. That’s most likely why in recent polls it barely rated as an issue for ordinary Australians. Add to the mix that a majority of Australians want the government to take action on climate change.
These observations are not anecdotal, they’re statistical. The most recent poll sees 61% of Australians wanting the Oz government to do more about climate change.
Promising to repeal the Carbon Tax was not a primary reason for the success of the Coalition yesterday. It’s not yet a given that it will happen. That will depend on any new legislation getting passed, and it is unlikely the Coalition will have the power to do it alone.
I expect Abbott will break many promises, just as Rudd would have had Labor won.
ecoGuy:
You say
He was human. And the story was about the failure of people to recognise the humanity of his monster.
Please try to avoid dehumanising people.
Warmunists do that. Greens do that. We are better than that.
Richard
albertalad says:
“… Obama was elected in the states – and he is doing what the citizens elected him to do…”
There is a mountain of evidence proving that immense voter fraud was employed to elect Obama. This may sound like sour grapes, but in fact voter fraud has been ramping up over the past decade or so, to the point where, for example, television media inadvertently announced Obama’s election two weeks before the election.
Tropical storm Sandy gave Obama the pretext to be on nationwide TV almost non-stop for three days straight, without allowing Romney the legally required equal time. Romney was effectively shut out by the media — and exit polls showed that fully half of all voters made their choice in the final 24 hours before election day. Obama is not as popular as you may think.
In another example of voter fraud, in Washington state Pauline Gregoire lost her election a couple years ago. Then there was a recount. She lost the recount. Then there was another recount, which she also lost. Then someone ‘found’ a ballot box that had been ‘overlooked’, which gave Gregoire the few votes she needed to ‘win’. The Democrat Secretary of State immediately swore her into office — something that her opponent had repeatedly requested, but was denied.
There was a very similar turn of events that enabled comedian Al Franken to cheat his way into the Senate. The list of people ‘winning’ by voter fraud is long and growing. So don’t be too sure that Obama was elected for doing ‘what the people want.’ Fully three-quarters of Americans do not want Obamacare. A large majority do not want still another war, especially since this one is intended for one purpose only: to put yet another Islamic radical terrorist regime in charge of yet another Middle East country. Obama wants to bomb Syria because Syrians are bombing Syrians. Didn’t President Washington warn us against taking sides in foreign civil wars?
So I feel pretty confident that if only legitimate citizen votes were counted, and equal time rules were enforced, King Obama would have lost his last election. Free Obamaphones can only buy so many low-info voters.
I have a folder of many similar examples of voter fraud. It does not take wholesale cheating to swing an election; only a couple of votes in critical precincts are sufficient. Democrats have become increasingly brazen, and of course no one calls them to account because the U.S. Attorney General is one of the most corrupt of the bunch. You couldn’t get 100% of voters to agree that the sky is blue, but in some precincts 100.0% of the votes went to Obama — and more votes were cast than there were registered voters! People have publicly bragged about voting in multiple states. Nothing is done about it. Also, try to get voter rolls purged of the dead, and those who have moved out of state. You will get nowhere, because those dead folks and the people who have moved are proxy voted. The evidence is everywhere, but no one will do anything about it.
The Democrats have become experts in these tactics. The result is more and more candidates who actually lost their elections, but who found fraudulent ways to ‘win’. The system is thoroughly gamed, and corrupt. Add to that between 38 – 40 million citizens of other countries, who are here illegally — but who vote anyway. None of them are prosecuted. That is the entire reason behind our completely open borders: voting by illegals. Also, a majority of the U.S. military was deliberately disenfranchised by direct orders of the Commander-in-Chief, who knows exactly how the military would vote.
I believe we have passed the point of no return in the U.S. There is no ‘right and wrong’ any more, there is only what you can get away with. So, good for Australia! Their citizens aren’t plagued by hordes of illegal invaders, and they have made it clear in this election what they want. Given the choice, they made the right decision. Good for them!
People are seeing through the scams, lies and alarmism of global warming. The politicians of other countries should take note.
Congratulations to Abott and his party, his followers and most importantly the Australian people.
Canadian report on Australian election
• emphasizes “hated carbon tax”
• features photo of Abbott, wife, & daughters
Do you agree that he has made “Another erroneous rationalisation”? If not, why do you link to that lousy web site?
dbstealey on September 7, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Unfortunally, simular things happened when G. W. Bush was reelected …
J Martin says:
September 7, 2013 at 11:51 am
Apparently at one time Abbot wanted to be a priest, so perhaps it is more likely that he will keep his word and deliver on his promises.
Did you forget the /sarc marker?
Congratulations to The People of Australia. This is a shining moment! I am happy for you.
I hope The People of the USA recognize the wisdom in this change and follow the lead.
Election officials said with about 80 percent of the vote counted, Abbott’s Liberal-National Party coalition had won around 52.6 percent of the national vote, and projected it would win at least 88 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
hardly a “landslide”
without real propagandist misinformation as is so often presented on this site, I am sure that Australia would have kept their heads and worked to ensure their general population benefits from continued carbon-free energy generation structures.
in the meantime:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/warm-winter-caps-nations-hottest-year-20130901-2syzt.html
Australia has just experienced its warmest 12 months since climate records began.
Data monitoring by the Bureau of Meteorology shows the average temperature throughout Australia in the year to August 31 was 1.11 degrees above the long-term average.
One can only hope that this brings positive change. I’m a life-long conservative Liberal/National coalition voter and I’m nervous about Tony Abbott as PM. He’s a social sonservative, but economically he’s far too big-spending for my liking. But what I am told (by those that know him) is that he’s nothing like the cariacture that has been painted of him by Labor and mainstream media. Hopefully we can get a PM with a bit of gravitas and decorum, instead of mysogyny-obsessed Julia Gillard and selfie-obsessed Kevin. If he’s no good, there’s always a new election in 3 years time.
I’m posting a link to a site that has been unbelievably popular the last few days. It’s filled with profanity, so NOT safe for the family:
http://dontbeafuckingidiot.com/
This, unfortunately, represents too many Australians for my comfort, and it’s a typical leftist rant against everything proper. Anyone who thinks gay marriage and keynesian stimuli are really important and really good have some sort of mental aberration, and distract any given country from what is really important.
I’m not convinced that Abbot is a great choice, but is certainly a BETTER choice than Gillard and Krudd.
One thing most commenters appear to have overlooked is the impact of the Abbott victory on the Australian Labor Party.
No senior Labor politician will ignore the fact that a substantial part of Abbott’s support came from his campaign against the political agenda of their Green Party coalition partners.
I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before Labor offers the Greens another coalition. For many years to come, in Australian politics, the Greens will be damaged goods.