Trade Minister Craig Emerson has brushed aside criticism of his theatrical attempt to ridicule the Opposition's campaign against the carbon tax.

During an interview with the ABC yesterday, Dr Emerson started dancing and singing "No Whyalla wipe-out, there on my TV" to the tune of Skyhooks' 1970s hit Horror Movie.

Dr Emerson was responding to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's previous comments that the South Australian city of Whyalla would be "wiped off the map" because of the carbon tax.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-03/emerson-defends-whyalla-wipeout/4106946

 

But the art of governing is not simply implementing previously determined policies and then waiting until the next election. George W Bush rightly described himself as The Decider. When we vote, we are not voting for a dot-point list of new laws and taxes, but for a team we trust to make future decisions that we will have no chance to vote upon individually.

Labor should understand this. The public's current disillusion is not solely because the government broke a promise, but because it turned out to be a very different beast to what was first offered.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4106954.html?WT.svl=theDrum

 

Chris Berg is disingenuous here, as usual, of course, since on average he supports Abbott far more in the tone and slant of his comments (even if he does not realise it)... But in fact, Labor knows this premise. Labor understands this — the concept of the "decider" — hence the carbon tax which you lot goes up in arms as it was not on the list of "Labor" policies. Tough titties...

 

Leaving this "decider" concept in the hand of Tony Abbott would be like giving him the bullets with which he would shoot us — the little people — while riding on with the super rich...

It's up to journos, including Berg,  to stop attacking the Carbon Tax as Berg does underhandedly — a tax which, despite "not being what was promised", is a big step in the right direction... Why don't you lot acknowledge this and let me carry on with my life...

 

 

The American Enterprise institute is a rite wing think tank... But despite this and its constant bashing of liberal (democratic) policies of the American democrats, it has made some concession, unlike our idiot-in-waiting, on climate change... It advocates a CARBON TAX.

 

Energy and environmental policy

AEI's work on climate change has been subject to controversy. According to AEI, it "emphasizes the need to design environmental policies that protect not only nature but also democratic institutions and human liberty".[38] When the Kyoto Protocol was approaching, AEI was hesitant to encourage the U.S. to join. In an essay from written by AEI economic policy directors and scholars from the AEI outlook series of 2007, the authors discuss the Kyoto Protocol and state that the United States “should be wary of joining an international emissions-trading regime”. To back this statement, they point out that committing to the Kyoto emissions goal would be a significant and unrealistic obligation for the United States.

 

In addition, they state that the Kyoto regulations would have an impact not only on governmental policies, but also the private sector through expanding government control over investment decisions. Scholars from AEI believed that “dilution of sovereignty” would be the result if the U.S. signed the treaty.[6] 

 

AEI scholars have strongly promoted carbon taxation as an alternative to cap-and-trade regimes. "Most economists believe a carbon tax (a tax on the quantity of CO2 emitted when using energy) would be a superior policy alternative to an emissions-trading regime," wrote Kenneth P. Green, Kevin Hassett, and Steven F. Hayward. "In fact, the irony is that there is a broad consensus in favor of a carbon tax everywhere except on Capitol Hill, where the 'T word' is anathema."[59] Other AEI scholars, including Samuel Thernstrom and Lee Lane, have argued for similar policies.[60][61] Thernstrom and Lane are codirecting a project on whether geoengineering would be a feasible way to "buy us time to make [the] transition [from fossil fuels] while protecting us from the worst potential effects of warming".[62]

Green is expanding AEI's work on energy policy. He has hosted conferences on nuclear power[63] and ethanol[64] With Aparna Mathur, he has also evaluated Americans' indirect energy use to discover unexpected areas in which energy efficiencies can be achieved.[65][66]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Enterprise_Institute

 

Tony Abbott is an idiot...