Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth
The Gillard government’s campaign to promote the “Household Assistance Package” has begun with the airing of television advertisements.
The ads focus on the compensation payments which formed part of the Clean Energy Future legislation but they make no mention of the carbon price.
The Climate Commission has released a report on New South Wales climate impacts and opportunities.
Climate commissioners Tim Flannery, Will Steffen and Lesley Hughes spoke to the media about their report.
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This is the Climate Commission’s summary of its report, ‘The Critical Decade’.
New South Wales (NSW) is home to over a third of Australians, 31% of the national economy and is highly vulnerable to climate change. Scientists are concerned that climate change is increasing the risk of hot weather, heatwaves, and bushfires, and changing the patterns of drought and heavy rainfall. A changing climate is costly, putting pressure on human health, agriculture, infrastructure and the natural environment.
NSW is becoming hotter and drier. Record-breaking hot days have more than doubled across Australia since 1960 and heatwaves in the greater Sydney region, especially in the western suburbs, have increased in duration and intensity. [Read more...]
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has delivered what the Liberal Party describes as a “landmark speech” on the environment.
Addressing the Australian Industry Group in Brisbane, Abbott said the Coalition “supports sensible measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions..but will never accept the proposition that you could save the environment by killing the economy.”
Abbott said: “Today, I’m stating what the Coalition will stand for as well as what the Coalition has stood against. We support direct action that will reduce emissions, not just make them more expensive. We support the creation of a Green Army marching to the rescue of Australia’s degraded waterways, wetlands, and native vegetation.” [Read more...]
Royal Assent has been given to the Gillard government’s Clean Energy Future legislation.
The legislation, a package of 21 bills, introduces a carbon tax and associated measures.
Text of media release from Treasurer Wayne Swan, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, and Families Minister Jenny Macklin:
Clean Energy Reforms Receive Royal Assent
The Gillard Government welcome the Royal Assent of a further 21 bills of the Clean Energy Future Legislative Package and the proclamation of their commencement dates.
The completion of this process means that the Government has the central legislative pieces in place to deliver a clean energy future for Australia.
The Clean Energy Act 2011, Clean Energy (Household Assistance Amendments) Act 2011, Steel Transformation Plan Act 2011 and Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act 2011 and 17 related bills have all now received Royal Assent. [Read more...]
Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a speech pleading for the science of climate change to be respected.
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This is the prepared text of Malcolm Turnbull’s speech to the Virginia Chadwick Foundation.
This Foundation commemorates the life and work of Virginia Chadwick, one of Australia’s most influential female parliamentarians and a strong friend of the environment. Let me say a few words about her at the outset.
She was a teacher before she presumably decided her charges were not unruly enough and so entered the NSW Parliament – better known as the Macquarie Street Bear Pit! John Fahey the former Liberal Premier of this State and Federal Finance Minister remembers that place very well!
Virginia was elected to the NSW Legislative Council representing the Liberal Party in 1978 at the age of 33. Over 21 years at Macquarie Street she blazed a trail for others to follow: she was the first female president of the NSW Legislative Council, first female Opposition Whip, first female Liberal minister and first female NSW Education minister. [Read more...]
Julia Gillard should have stayed in bed this week, for all the good her carbon tax campaigning did.
In fact, she ought to just shut up about the carbon tax and get on with something else.
This week smacks of the same hopeless political strategy that Rudd and Gillard have fallen for before, the strategy that says you have to run around the country like a maniac and never shut up.
It’s also the strategy that gives Tony Abbott a daily free kick as the media treat the circus like an election campaign and give him equal time.
Take Gillard’s appearance at the National Press Club yesterday. Her speech on climate change was quite good, but it was overshadowed by the personal development lecture from the Unley High school girl.
Last night’s television pictures duly centred on Gillard’s teary moment and her injunction to the press gallery to “stop writing crap”. Forget about any coverage of the economic imperatives of the carbon tax.
That argument was left to Paul Keating who, in 20 minutes on Lateline, managed to put the case better than any minister in the Government has managed for years. In that inimitable style of his, Keating positioned the tax as a necessary response to a transformative need in the economy. As an advocate, he shamed the Government with his easy command of striking political imagery. [Read more...]
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating appeared on Lateline last night to defend the carbon tax.
Keating said the carbon tax was an essential step on the path to new industries in the new age: “See, the question is, I think: do we want a first-rate industrial economy or do we want an economy with a brown, fat underbelly? You know, do we want to get into the new age with the new industries, or do we stay in the old ones, talking as Tony Abbott is talking about industries that were important a hundred years ago?”
Prime Minister Julia Gillard addressed the National Press Club today on the government’s carbon tax policy.
The Prime Minister stressed that the policy was a major and difficult reform. “And in reform, what matters is having the right vision for the country’s future, making the big decisions which get us there, bringing people together to get it done. So now we have had the debate. Now we move from words to deeds. We’re going to get this done.”
Gillard momentarily lost her composure when speaking about her feelings: “It doesn’t come easy to me to expose my feelings as I make these decisions. I was the shy girl who studied and worked hard, and it took time and effort but I got from Unley High to the law and as far as here, where I am today. I’ve brought a sense of personal reserve to this, the most public of professions. And the rigours of politics have reinforced my innate style of holding a fair bit back in order to hang pretty tough.”
In response to a question from Channel 7′s Mark Riley about the responsibility of the media, Gillard suggested a starting point would be to “stop writing crap”.
Listen to Julia Gillard’s speech (30m)
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Listen to Questions and Answers (34m)
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Listen to Gillard’s “Don’t write crap” response (4m)
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This is the prepared text of Julia Gillard’s address to the National Press Club.
The issues that have brought me here to the Press Club as Prime Minister have been big ones. Laying out my vision for Australia in a national election campaign and making my case in the leaders’ debate. Reflecting on the formation of a new Government and announcing our plan to rebuild Queensland. [Read more...]
After labouring for months, the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee has brought forth a tax and welfare package as much as an environmental policy.
With significant implications for the welfare sector, and tax cuts for everyone earning up to $80,000 a year, in the short term the carbon tax may not be the most important effect of the government’s plan.
The government says around 60% of taxpayers will get a tax cut of at least $300 from July next year, and no one will pay more tax. In 2015-16, further tax cuts come into effect.
The tax free threshold will be raised to $18,200. Treasurer Wayne Swan says up to a million extra Australians will be freed from having to lodge a tax return from next financial year. Many low-income earners who have to deal with the Taxation Office and Centrelink will find they only have to deal with Centrelink. Like the general tax cuts, the tax free threshold will increase again to $19,400 in 2015 when the fixed price on carbon is replaced by the emissions trading scheme. [Read more...]
