Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – Aussie Climate Enthusiast Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, member for Goldman Sachs, has walked back an apparent attempt to introduce a new Aussie Carbon Tax after his own MPs vigorously rebelled against the idea.
From JoNova;
9 mins: He is asked about an energy “emission intensity scheme”.
Josh rejects any “economy wide approach”. “”What this review has indicated is we will look at a sector-by-sector approach. The electricity sector is the one which produces the most emissions — around a third of Australia’s emissions come from that sector.”
OhOH:
Frydenberg: We know that a large number of bodies have recommended an emissions intensity scheme a baseline and credit scheme.
Any chance of that happening?
10 minutes Frydenberg “Wait and see… we want to hear from the experts on the lowest cost of abatement… thats what we owe the Australian households and businesses.”
Full programme: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/am/201612/20161205-am-fullprogram.mp3
The backlash didn’t take long to reach a crescendo;
Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin claimed she had never seen such a reaction from backbenchers on an issue like she had yesterday.
“My phone has not stopped all day. People are really angry that they sense the party will re-litigate those issues which they had considered closed and dealt with,” she told Sky News last night.
Read more (paywalled): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/cory-bernardi-slams-liberals-carbon-pricing-on-power-companies-idea/news-story/60cbcadb271acba5d978aed9237238e6
The Turnbull government later issued a categorical denial;
…
The Turnbull government will maintain its blanket ban on the introduction of an emissions trading scheme and has ruled out an increase to the renewable energy target ahead of its long-awaited review of its climate change policy next year.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will today announce the government’s terms of reference for its review, which will look at how Australia can meet and expand on its target to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
…
Read more (paywalled): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/climate-policy-review-to-focus-on-emissions-target/news-story/306781fd1248d6e27eebeef500a28943
Climate enthusiast Malcolm Turnbull ousted skeptic PM Tony Abbott back in 2015. Since then Turnbull has fumbled decision after decision, almost losing an election intended to consolidate Turnbull’s climate friendly mandate.
This apparent attempt to revisit the hated carbon tax, opposition to which delivered a landslide victory to Abbott, is simply the latest in a series of disastrous missteps climate enthusiast Malcolm Turnbull has perpetrated on the Australian People.
I suspect many in Australia’s government will be wondering how long they can continue to support a leader whose misjudgement almost cost them the last election, and whose unbridled enthusiasm for imposing unpopular green policies will likely cost them the next.
Update (EW): Fixed a typo
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Turnbull’s days are short and numbered.
Australia needs a 5Star movement, a Marine LePenn, an AfG. Clear the decks and get an us vs. them party establishment.
Honestly, I love you guys (ever since you gave us Olivia Newton-John and Mad Max-Mel Gibson) and your cool version of football (rugby), but come on, how can anyone keep this mess straight:
PartyAbbrev. Leader International ass Seats in House Seats in Senate
Australian Greens AG Richard Di Natale Global Greens 1 9
Australian Labor Party ALP Bill Shorten Progressive Alliance 69 26
Family First Party FFP Bob Day none 0 1
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation ONP Pauline Hanson none 0 4
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party DHJP Derryn Hinch none 0 1
Jacqui Lambie Network JLN Jacqui Lambie none 0 1
Katter’s Australian Party KAP Bob Katter none 1 0
Liberal Democratic Party LDP David Leyonhjelm Interlibertarians 0 1
Nick Xenophon Team NXT Nick Xenophon none 1 3
The Coalition Country Liberal Party (NT) CLP none none 0 1
Liberal National Party (QLD) LNP none none 21 5
Liberal Party of Australia LPA Malcolm Turnbull International Democrat Union 45 21
National Party of Australia NATS Barnaby Joyce
14 Parties??
A multiverse, mishmash of confusion.
More parties do NOT make better government. In 1932, Germany had 34 political parties, and we all know how THAT turned out.
This calls for unnecessary sarcasm. It wasn’t the 34 parties which brought the unmentionable into power. Two would be perfectly enough. Just think about how near it was with Hillary.
If I recall, their follow up consolidation wasn’t so hot either.
Sounds more like their current government could use a leadership bowel movement
Turned out better than what we see going on in Europe today….
Ummm…rugby football originated in England, at Rugby School.
You might mean Aussie Rules footy?
The first and last time I saw a game of “Rules”, there didn’t appear to be any.
Rules are much overrated!
Kick the ball between the big posts and you get lots of points – No eyegouging. What more rules do you need?
(Rugby doesn’t even have those rules but when your competitors are all brain-damaged any rules are too many rules.)
Patrick MJD,
its just too fast moving for some people to follow mate. Never mind, I suppose soccer will toddle along or gridiron bring on the dancing girls and keep you entertained enough to not want to try suicide I suppose…. 🙂
ANyway, back on topic, I cannot for the life of me understand why these clowns even floated the idea 2 days out from a COAG meeting ( Aussie federal and state HOG meeting) which would always split on party lines fro or against any such proposal. A hiding to nothing. These twats have the judgement of that clown Abbott.
“M Seward December 9, 2016 at 3:12 am”
I don’t care for any of these games.
I can just image a crocodile wrestling Nigel Farage talking Strine with corks on his hat.
Keep this up and pretty soon, they’ll turn into Italy.
Italy seems to be turning into something un-Italian!
….Rugby was invented in England, and Olivia Newton-Joihn was born in Cambridge, daughter of an English father and the daughter of the great physicist Max Born.
Brexit & Trumpsit going austral.
Yes please.
Emissions trading carbon tax whatever iteration it reappears under like the mythical Hyrda it is far from dead, I guarantee it rears its ugly head again.
Of course Turnbull wants a carbon dioxide tax.
He’s a banker. They always want poor people’s money and this is billions of it.
Let’s hope he’s not as insane as the Australian Greens, who wanted to hit the poor with a carbon tax of $120 per tonne! Even the ALP $23/tonne, the world’s highest carbon tax, was enough to lose them the election in a landslide. We need the sanity of Tony Abbott to return.
A Nitrogen tax would be much more profitable, wouldn’t you agree? Nitrogen, thus, in the financial sphere (as opposed to the atmosphere), would get the respect it deserves.
Taxing the air we breath is any statists dream.
Do WUWT readers want to win public support for rational enviromental policy?
The loony left cannot stand the light. Public Policy Debates would gain massive audience and FORCE the left to real debate instead of MSM talking points!
PLEASE contact the Trump Transition Team and request Policy debates. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/c…
Presedential Public Policy Debates (PPPD) on CAGW and other issues like immigration with people like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and David Horowitz debating whomever the left wants to send to embarrass.
Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming debate would be excellent. The left CANNOT win those debates. So PLEASE email the Trump Transition Team to set these up.
Edit Reply
It is and always was a revenue issue to solve unrelated budget issues. That explains the enduring political appeal. It’s the life blood of socialists with big idea lists and limited debt capacity.
“Aussie Climate Enthusiast Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, member for Goldman Sachs,”
Must be a Marxist socialist.
(Note for Americans: the Australian Liberals are more conservative than British Conservatives. Not as right wing as American Democrats, though.)
Don’t you gov folks get any news down under. Not just the carbon tax is dead, the whole climate malfeasance is waiting for the axe to drop in mere weeks. There is a lot of praying and casting of spells as the end draws nigh everywhere else and you guys are blissfully proposing antideluvian phlogiston sequestration and other wifty poofly stuff.
‘There is a lot of praying and casting of spells…’
So funny, so true.
California’s Democrats are Captain Smith-style “full steam ahead, damn the icebergs!” on their business and job killing carbon tax.
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is the 29th and current Prime Minister of Australia and the Leader of the Liberal Party.
“In February 2007, Turnbull was criticised for claiming a government allowance of A$175 a night and paying it to his wife as rent while living in a townhouse owned by her in Canberra.[49]
During the 2007 election campaign, Turnbull announced that the then Government would contribute A$10 million to the investigation of an untried Russian technology that aims to trigger rainfall from the atmosphere, even when there are no clouds. The Australian Rain Corporation presented research documents written in Russian, explained by a Russian researcher who spoke to local experts in Russian.[50] Although Turnbull claimed that Australian Rain Corporation was Australian-based, investigations revealed that it was 75 per cent Swiss-owned. It was also revealed that a prominent stakeholder in the Australian Rain Corporation, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch. Turnbull has refused to answer questions regarding Handbury’s contribution to the Wentworth Forum, the main fund-raising organisation for Turnbull’s 2007 election campaign.[50] ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Turnbull
I wounder how long it will take before Malcolm Bligh suffers the same fate as William Bligh .
http://australianmuseum.net.au/william-bligh
Dump him. Wrong on taxes. Wrong on jobs. Wrong for Australia.
Fight on our Aussie friends.
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2016/12/09/there-will-be-no-carbon-tax-under-a-government-i-pretend-to-lead/
this Aussie wishes he had stuck to his guns, forcing his party to dump him sooner rather than later, and put us out of our antipodean misery.
“this Aussie wishes he had stuck to his guns,” I understand home invasions has increased in your part of the world.
Actually, since gun laws were introduced in the 90’s, gun crime has increased.
Guns can’t commit crime.
I don’t think gun crime increased in Australia:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
Griff, you do seem to have an affinity for dodgy sources. Why not Politifact? Or the WaPo? They are as reliable and as non-partisan as Alex Jones.?sarc
Follow the links-
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/10/22/fail-gun-controlled-australia-admits-criminals-still-armed-launches-amnesty/
thank God and the founders for the 2nd Amendment…
If the constitution was still being read as intended, there would be no need for a 2nd amendment. The constitution does not give the government the authority to regulate guns, therefore the government does not have the authority to regulate guns.
At the time, many argued against the inclusion of the Bill of Rights. They feared that future generations would come to consider them to be the sum total of our rights, rather than just a restating of what should have been obvious. They may have been prescient.
I sometimes have the whimsical suspicion that “gun control” just a subtle device to make sure American right wingers study constitutional law.
If one truly values the notion of civil rights, one tends to see how the attitude of the type of people who pass such laws is indicative of a deeper desire to control people in general, as well as prejudice based on social class, which in the US is tied inextricably to race.
A fair expositon on civil rights is the US Supreme court case, Chicago v. McDonald, especially Clarence Thomas’ concurrence.
“Griff, you do seem to have an affinity for dodgy sources.”
If he didn’t use dodgy sources he wouldn’t have any sources at all.
“Griff December 9, 2016 at 6:30 am
I don’t think gun crime increased in Australia:”
You don’t live in Australia do you Griif? Nah, I didn’t think so.
BTW Griff, I work for the New South Wales Police Force, in fact and until recently, at the HQ where someone was shot last year, right out side the building. Now, *ALL* sworn officers at HQ wear arms.
“Aussie Climate Enthusiast Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, member for Goldman Sachs…”
Can someone who speaks Aussie translate that for me? What does “member for Goldman Sachs” mean? Does he work for Goldman Sachs? Is he on the board? Is he a lobbyist for them? Is there a Goldman Sachs club that he’s a member of?
Previously the CEO of Goldman Sachs Australia.
While he is officially the “member for Wentworth”, he is unofficially known by ad hominems, most of them accurate, including Turdsfull and the member for Gold in Sacks.
Chairman Mal-function Waffler, the Member for Golden Sacks.
aka Mr Harbour Side Mansion
Ever since GS bought out Al Gore’s carbon trading rights on the Chicago exchange(1/2 of 8o million), GS has been looking to cash in. All senior GS executives have to be assumed to be still on that bandwagon, as it was to be the biggest trading scheme ever. The trick was to get GS execs into government leadership positions to push carbon trading. So far they have not been successful. However, one still must assume the hidden agenda still exists.
As the only source I have for Australian politics is US media, and occasional referrerrences to it on this blog, I start by admitting some ignorance. It looks like the problem we have had in the US of the left co-opting the purported opposition on green issues. GW Bush was notably squishy on climate issues, making reference to “an addiction” to fossil fuels, and did very little to rein in the EPA during his administration. Sometimes in politics, it comes down to the chorus of the old mineworkers organizing song– “which side are you on boys, which side are you on?”.
May I respectfully suggest an independent Australian magazine, “Newsweekly”, http://www.newsweekly.com.au/, which I support.
Turnbull actually used to be of the ALP left, then changed sides. He has always been very climate changey and brought numerous recessive traits of the left with him to the LNP. The sooner Abbott is back the better for all.
Abbott won’t be back and the LNP will lose in 2019, or whenever. As I have said many times on this wonderful blog, Turnbull will be a disaster for Australia, and has so far shown to be true.
Turnbull is definitely on the nose. I expect some sort of leadership spill in a few months. Remember, Tony Abbott was a tenacious opposition leader who did a great job at eroding the Government of the time. He will just do it in a friendly-fire scenario this time around. Either that or the One Nation party will become larger as conservatives turn away from the Liberals
Yes, He’s on the nose, but don’t expect too much appetite to dump him until much closer to the next election – I expect it to be about six months out. It’s better to field a new candidate for PM at a point the public doesn’t know what they REALLY stand for.
Australia introduced a carbon tax, again, July 1st 2016.
Link;
http://joannenova.com.au/2016/05/secret-deal-australia-already-has-an-ets-carbon-tax-starts-in-5-weeks/
There are pockets of resistance to the climastrologist nonsense bobbing up regularly and I suspect Malcolm in the Muddle is where he is at present because of it-
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/ridd-on-reef-dont-trust-alarmists/news-story/da65fb7bac61af3677e171dafe072a1f
He still pays lip service to the warming mantra but then he’s a rationalist and gets stuck into South Australia’s Premier Weatherill for our unreliable and most expensive Australian power.
Yes maybe
But, on form, what did he say 5 minutes later?
From multiple on-the-record utterances etc, there is every reason to think that Mr Turnbull “believes” in the Co2 – Global Warming [not even ‘CC’] ‘scenario’, as much as he believes any other phenomenon. Combined with his blind lust to be ‘top dog’, this makes him totally unfit for leadership of anything at all, except perhaps a gang of robber barons.
Emissions trading carbon tax whatever iteration it reappears under like the mythical Hyrda it is far from dead, I guarantee it rears its ugly head again.
We have two major parties the liberals and labor neither is worth a pinch of pee , then we have the national party supposedly looking out for the farmers and regional folk , and yes we have the greens .
Our hope though is “one nation” who won four senate seats last election and will do very well next election if they can get their act together .
We also have a heap of weird and whacky one person one issue (usually) parties , names like “the sex party” , and the marijuna party to name but a few .
One party named the ” shooters,fishers and farmers” ( an NRA wannabe org ) gave their preference votes to an anti gun party a couple of elections ago so yes we Aussies basically have one nation as our Trump and can only hope they have a brexit / trump like moment next election .
The liberals and labor are hated by a lot of people and labor are our version of your democrats , green through and through and chomping at the bit to tackle dangerous global warming .
They spend and waste money like there’s no tomorrow and renewables is their idea of nirvana .
Usually in Australia labor is in power for about two terms ,sends the country broke then get booted out the liberals come in take money from people on welfare , low income earners and the poor , restore the country’s bank balance and then get booted out after two terms and the cycle repeats .
Depressing really when you think about it .
For the US folks, where Robert from Oz mentions ‘liberals’, they’re the Aussie version of conservatives. In the past they were actually the party of the left and at that time the name was accurate. Labor emerged to the Liberals’ left so now the name doesn’t make sense for a party that’s been elbowed to the ‘centre-right’. The term ‘centre-right’ only fits loosely because they’re still left of centre as far as many Aussies are concerned. Since then the Greens have emerged to Labor’s left and the whole mess constantly pulls to the left like an unroadworthy car. The Aussie media is possibly even more supportive of leftists and their causes than the US media – we don’t even have a Fox News equivalent. Depressing. But the weather and climate are both just perfect here in tropical north Queensland…
Could do with a bit more rain though (as always)!
Which Aussie party believes in personal freedom, free enterprise, and keeping the government as small as possible?
Liberal Democrats
Australian Liberty Alliance
One Nation
VoteFlux.org
in that order. Australian Conservative is not a registered party (yet).
Many years ago, on a BBC news snippet on a South African election [before Nelson Mandela was freed], there was this Brit describing the South African political scene:
“You have the right-of-centre Liberal Party.
“Well to the right of them is the governing National Party.
“On the far-right-wing is the Conservative Party, who make Mrs. Thatcher look positively Stalinist.
“And, away to the far right of them is the AWB.”
Not quite a verbatim quote – but I still giggle thirty years [or whatever] later.
Auto – I saw Dwight Eisenhower visiting the UK as President!
Ill-informed tabloid opinions, but mostly harmless.
It’s also hard on the reputation of the Minister so victimised. As soon as someone else can raise the numbers, Turnbull will have to walk the plank…
So hurry up.
Trouble is that Frydenberg is a believer in AGW. We need people who “believe in” reality.
It’s not about numbers, it’s about timing. If they replace him now, then the new guy has 2 years to run, if they replace him around 6 months before the next election the new guy gets to campaign in the “Honeymoon Period”. So the delay is all about politics before we know what a malthusian he/she really is. My worry is that Bishop will be that candidate.
Robert you are spot on and we think the Trump effect will help one nation at our next elections in Australia . it is our only hope as the greens, labour,liberals, are self destructing as i speak it is hard to believe what is happing too Australia
Turdbull is not a liberal politician in any way, shape or form. The guy was happy to be a leftist labour politician if it ment getting a seat in parliment. Sadly, the libtards gave him a shot and this is now the result of 15 years of turdbull politics. He is a traitor to the party ideals and F knows why the liberals put up with this sack of ####.
It’s the Liberals who put Mr Turnbull in, [“Turnbull’s Traitors”] and continue to support him now, who are the rotting fish, or the stupid, insipid and the coward – there’s plenty to go around!
“…tiptoes away from…” is an elegant way of saying that Turnbull stepped in a turd and is trying to find a way to elegantly wipe his shoes and pretend it never happened. That’s probably the final straw for his leadership role. Everyone knows he is only keeping the seat warm. Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the National Party, had his opportunity a couple of years ago to make an impact and take the conservative vote back again and he blew it. Instead of holding a position to the right of center, he and the National Party lent Left to keep in alignment with the Liberals and made room for One Nation to stake a claim firmly in right field. While One Nation performs in the polls, the Nationals will not be able to drag themselves back and will eventually dissolve as a party with many of the membership defecting to One Nation. The challenge for the Liberal Party is how to position itself back to the Right if it even wants to take on that fight. It maybe an easier proposition for the Liberals to reinforce its present position. Either way, if One Nation can consolidate with a great team, it will continue to grow. Its position on climate change is refreshing to many voters.
I think the Aussies need someone who will make Australia great again.
Like the great Andrew Fisher [1862-1928], PM roughly 1908 – 1915.
Nigel Farage.
Nigel would be OK except he’s a pom, and rule No 1 1/2 reads “no poms”.
So is Abbott and Gillard, although she is Welsh!
‘mind if we call him Bruce, just to keep it clear?
Gillard may be of Welsh origin; the nation that worships the beauty of spoken word with their soft gentle accent. However she’s 100% Strine and sounds like a rusty chainsaw operating on a tin fence.
“Hector Pascal December 9, 2016 at 6:21 am
Gillard may be of Welsh origin; the nation that worships the beauty of spoken word with their soft gentle accent. However she’s 100% Strine and sounds like a rusty chainsaw operating on a tin fence.”
She is from Barry, where old steamers go to get dismantled (On Barry Island).
Gillard isn’t Welsh now. Australian Federal Law requires that Federal MPs have Australian Nationality and no other. She renounced her British nationality, and proved it. She has lived in Australia since she was a little girl.
(Abbot told us he renounced his, but rumours abound that he didn’t.)
“RoHa December 9, 2016 at 10:54 pm”
Dual, or in my case triple nationality, is OK. I can run for PM. I just need to be a citizen, and I am not sure I want the lobotomy to qualify for that. 😉
Patrick MJD December 10, 2016 at 1:37 am
Indeed! A bottle in front of me is better than a frontal lobotomy.
OI Paddy McPatPat, I resemble that remark…
Go enjoy a fluffy sheep and a warm beer then :oP
Just mean’s you’re not allowed to box with a Kangaroo!
Hummmm….lol…
We desperately need new blood in the fight , someone who speaks their mind and doesn’t give a rats what the leftist media says or prints like Trump , someone who gives a rats about regional areas like Trump .
Someone who calls the CAGW scam out for what it is like Trump , someone who is their own person and owes nobody nothing like Trump .
Someone who is against the TPP like trump .
Someone who has had enough with out of touch politicians and will drain the Canberra swamp.
At the moment “one nation” you’re our only hope DONT STUFF UP.
CORY BERNADI!
Trump will show what is possible, and others will follow his example.
Yes. Politicians in every Western nation will start to copy Trump if they can see it gets them votes.
The sooner we can replace Canada’s Obama with Canada’s Trump, the better. Even the left seem to be getting fed up with the Boy King.
you are 100% right
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will today announce the government’s terms of reference for its review, which will look at how Australia can meet and expand on its target to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
This is all progressive talk. Deception and lies. Read the last bit above.
look at how Australia can meet and expand on its target to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. They are still going for it but sneekily
“Australia can meet and expand on its target to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.”
Does anyone know how much this reduction will lower the Earth’s temperature?
Precisely.
Zip, zero nada, SFA.
That’s what I thought. 🙂
I love the immense hypocrisy of Australia when it talks about saving the planet from Global Warming by taxing carbon-based fuels burned in Australia, while it exports millions of tons of coal each year to China, where it is burned and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Coal mining is a huge industry in Australia, and a big export earner.
The late PM Julia Gizzard was the great promoter of the tax on carbon to stop carbon dioxide production, and the unpopularity of the carbon tax is regarded as one of the main reasons she was defeated. Turnbull seems to have a very short memory.
Like this coal mine?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-10/adani-coal-mine-gains-critical-status-queensland-kick-start-move/7917506
Further madness includes the death of the aluminium industry in Australia, because it’s so electricity (CO2) intensive. Far better to ship the ore to China, let them make the CO2, then ship the aluminium back to Aus. More money for China, less for Aus, and all that extra CO2 for a return trip of the aluminium. It doesn’t get any more insane than that.
So painful to read – yet so true.
Australia needs political leadership from politicians with backbone and balls.
Our present leaders have neither!
GeoffW
They are Govn’t employees. They know that doing nothing works, for them.
To paraphrase Donald Trump, we’re a low energy civilisation. Soon we’ll just be low energy.