Not very long ago, Tony Abbott described climate change as "crap". It's no secret that the majority of Liberal and National party members do not believe in climate change and with a new leader in Tony Abbot I'm afraid things are not going to change. It's this then which surprises me as we see the nauseating sight of Mr Abbot climbing up roofs with solar panel installers smiling at every opportunity at the hungry media wanting to learn more about the new Liberal leader and his new climate change policy.
The thing is Tony Abbott's stance on climate change has not changed. It's still crap to him and to his merry band of hard line Liberal party foes, the likes of Barnaby Joyce and Nick Minchin. Why then does the Liberal party have a climate change 'policy' at all? This question was put to Mr. Abbott and his response was that their policy merely reflected the public's sentiments on climate change at this point in time. How committed to reducing green house gases then do you think Mr. Abbott would be if the only reason he has come up with a policy at all is to appease the public and not because he believes in climate change.
Now let's look at the Liberal Party's climate change 'policy' if you can call it that. This, according to Mr. Abbott is the magic solution to save our planet from destruction. Instead of putting a cost on emissions, he has decided to reward those, presumably farmers who 'act green', meaning the government will pay them to plant trees and practice environmentally sustainable methods to farming. The details in this however, are as clear as mud. Their 'policy' also rewards solar panel installations, which I presume was part of the reason why we saw Mr. Abbott on TV climbing up roofs looking like a sleazy solar panel salesman. As a note, no other developed nation has anything of a similar nature in their climate change policy as that proposed by Mr. Abbott. He is alone on this one but then again he is pretty much alone on his ferocity against the science espousing man created global warming when compared with other developed governments. Even developing nations like China and India have a far better grasp on the urgent action required than our free wielding solar panel salesman.
Let there be no mistake, those measures proposed by Tony Abbott are needed and will go some ways to helping our battered environment but one of many flaws with it is that it does not penalise the polluters. Within minutes of Mr. Abbott announcing his policy, the president of the 'Coal Association' appeared on TV, beaming with a smile that started just under his left ear lobe and ended close to his right ear lobe saying he supported Mr. Abbott's policy. Call me silly but the last person I want endorsing my green policy is the president of the Coal Association.
The policy highlights actions that governments should encourage the public to adopt but should never be the core of the government's climate change policy as it does not penalise pollution but rewards certain environmentally friendly practices. What happens if no one goes for the rewards? Does that mean that the policy does nothing at all? How do you tell the world that you're committed to a 5%, 10% or 20% reduction in emissions when you do not have an Emissions Trading Scheme? Mr. Abbott's solution is to tell the leaders of the other countries..."Aaaah we'll plant 1,000,000 trees and when they mature in 5 years time it'll be right mate...". Australia will be the laughing stock of the international community.
Mr. Abbott did not explain how he was going to fund the monetary rewards for acting green. The shadow treasurer Barnaby Joyce mixed up his millions and billions and likewise his billions and trillions when prodded further about the numbers. A $3.2 billion figure was bandied around and if that is the cost of saving our planet, then Tony Abbott really is a magician and I'm the tooth fairy.
The facts are the Liberal party has never been and are not committed to climate change. They've been forced to make a stance on climate change not unlike a child who's been forced to say sorry after doing something wrong and they've come up with this piece of crap they call a climate change policy. They haven't got the numbers worked out and the details are sketchy at best. There is nothing to say what they are proposing will reduce pollution by 5%, 10%, 20% or nothing at all. Who knows? Maybe Tony Abbott will consult the tooth fairy one of these nights and let us know.
If you want to see climate change tackled head on and not this airy fairy plant a tree here or there, throw in a solar panel here or there 'policy' then this latest charade perpetuated on a seemingly daily basis by the leader of the opposition should be given no more consideration than those Nigerian scams that pull wool over your eyes and take you for a ride.
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