The problem with being an extremist is that you are easily outflanked. The new Labor climate change policy has done just that to the Liar. It has been very well received by the business community and press.
The Labor policy is neither overly ambitious nor innovative, but it is politically savvy to the extent that it relies upon existing but idled Coalition policy mechanisms:
More than 200 of the nation’s heaviest polluters will be required to collectively lower their emissions over the next three decades under Labor’s climate policy to help achieve an economy-wide cut of 43 per cent by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050.
The policy was in line with demands by peak employer and business groups, but nonetheless is set to become an election battleground after the government labelled it a carbon tax before it had even seen it.
The policy, according to the associated modelling by Reputex, will lower power prices, increase jobs and drive the uptake of renewable energy.
…A centrepiece of the policy is a revamped safeguards mechanism that will apply to the 215 entities that currently emit more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
The policy objectives of 43% carbon output cuts by 2030 are roughly comparable to the commitments by Canada and Japan so they bring Australia back into line with a half-decent effort, if well short of Paris commitments to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
Labor’s bottom-up policies are practical in more renewable jobs for regions and more batteries for those that can’t afford them, so on and so forth.
The modeling for the policy looks credible as well. Given electricity price falls are certain with a greater rollout of renewables to 82% of grid production versus 68% under the Liar, it will displace uber-expensive gas:
The Liar responded in a predictable fashion and we can see he is going to reprise previous “carbon tax” panics:
“You invest in the technologies that get you there by 2050, you don’t do it by forcing people’s electricity prices up, forcing people out of jobs,” he said.
“A 43 per cent target isn’t safe for the Hunter, not safe for Gladstone, not safe for Belgrave, not safe for our manufacturers, not safe for jobs.”
How would the Liar know? He has spent a decade fighting against any and all carbon mitigation. He is bought and paid for by the east gas cartel. His objectives are clearly narrow political gains in fossil fuel seats.
The Liar’s position is easily humiliated. Does he know better than the entire business community that makes the investments?
Ironically, the Liar has himself installed an enormous backhanded carbon tax via huge gas and electricity price rises from his expansive policies to protect the east coast gas cartel which produces very expensive power. The difference between the Liar’s secret carbon tax and any other is who pays for it and who keeps the money.
Labor would prefer that polluters pay the tax in the cost of their transition, given they do the polluting.
The Liar prefers that you pay it to the polluter via your utility bills, and to lie about it:
“Labor can’t be trusted on this important economic transition,” he [Frydenberg] told the ABC’s Insiders program,
“The last time they had a go at climate policy, we got a doubling in electricity prices, we lost one in eight Australian jobs.”
The reason power prices doubled was the quadrupling in gas prices under the Coalition. The jobs claim is an outrageous lie.
A near-decade spent trashing electricity policy, the loss of its core business constituency as a result, and it’s still Labor’s fault!
