Conservatives back the carbon tax

Abbott: "You bastard, Cameron".

Is this the beginning of the end for Abbott?
And an opportunity for Turnbull?

Iain hasn’t brought this up so I will: Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron has backed Julia Gillard’s carbon tax plan, striking a major blow to Tony Abbott’s negative campaign that he has been conducting - endlessly - all over the bloody country.

JULIA Gillard’s bid to impose a carbon tax in Australia has won a glowing endorsement from British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, undercutting a fierce campaign against the scheme by his conservative ally, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Mr Cameron praised the Australian Prime Minister’s carbon plan as bold, ambitious, and a spur to other nations. In May his government approved a binding 50 per cent cut to carbon emissions by 2025, while Australia’s non-binding target is a 5 per cent cut by 2020.

In a letter obtained by The Sunday Age, Mr Cameron says Ms Gillard’s policy ”will add momentum to those, in both the developed and developing world, who are serious about dealing with this urgent threat”.

”I was delighted to hear of the ambitious package of climate change policy measures you announced on 10 July and wanted to congratulate you on taking this bold step,” he writes.

[...]

Mr Cameron’s letter came as a surprise to Ms Gillard and her inner circle. She had met Mr Cameron at the G20 leaders summit and during a visit to London for the royal wedding in April, but the pair do not have an especially close relationship.

Mr Abbott travelled to Britain last October for the Conservative Party conference. He had a 15-minute formal meeting with Mr Cameron and sat next to him during dinner one evening.

The Tories have championed themselves as a party of strong climate action. Mr Cameron has vowed his government would be the ”greenest ever”.

As I’ve made clear before, I am an ALP supporter, which only means I support them like I support my football team, St Kilda - i.e. through thick & thin. And, just like my team, I realise that the ALP are not always the best, can put in some pretty ordinary performances and can sometimes lack leadership. The Saints presently have great leadership in coach Ross Lyon and captain Nick Riewoldt but, unfortunately, my political footy side, the ALP, has a leader who embarrasses me. PM Julia Gillard seems incapable of selling her proposal to introduce a price on carbon next year. She can’t explain the benefits or sell the positives in a way that gives the majority of people any confidence that this new, carbon-free economy is the way of the future. And she’s so wooden and uninspiring. In footy terms, she’s the equivalent of Melbourne’s coach Dean Bailey, a coach who came into the job with little if not zero AFL credentials, who has put no runs on the board and whose popularity stocks are at an all time low, especially after yesterday’s humiliating, near-AFL record 186 points thrashing at the hands of that country hick team Geelong. 

Gillard has no real political future beyond this current term and it’s still no certainty she’ll lead the party to what seems like certain defeat at the 2013 election. She’s a goner and she doesn’t seem to care. I mean, anyone who is prepared to stand next to Christine Nixon & Jo Chandler to launch their disgraceful book this week, obviously has no intention of sticking around for the long haul.

But if Julia Gillard is the Dean Bailey of  politics, what about Tony Abbott? I think he’s like a yapping dog barking at the government’s heels because, well, because he can. So maybe he’s the Jason Akermanis of politics, you know, always in your face but not someone to take very seriously and lacking any real substance in what he says. And, just like the Bulldogs got sick & tired of Akers’ constant harping and sacked him last year, maybe the Liberals will finally see the light too and rid itself of Abbott’s very negative, opposition-for-opposition’s-sake and no-real-direction style of leadership. Well, in light of the above news, if they don’t get with the program and start putting forward some viable alternatives, they may well hand Gillard a giant free kick right in front of goals. And maybe, just maybe, another term? Who knows?

Which brings me to Malcolm Turnbull. As we all know, the former Liberal leader Turnbull is a strong – very strong – supporter of putting a price on carbon. He actually supports Julia Gillard’s proposal, although obviously he can’t come out and say so in so many, direct words. Nonetheless, he’s come very close to endorsing it, much to Abbott’s displeasure. And, as we all know too, Turnbull’s support for a carbon tax and an ETS cost him the opposition leadership position when he was surprisingly dumped in favour of Abbott-the-head-kicker … by just one vote!

Maybe the time is right for Malcolm Turnbull to return to the job he probably shouldn’t have been dumped from in the first place. I’m not saying that he would have won last year’s election if he’d stayed and, in fact, I think Abbott was probably the right person to bridge the huge gap that existed between the Liberals and the then Kevin Rudd led government when Abbott took over and started up his very negative, in-your-face campaign. I’ll give him that – he did serve the Liberals well in the short-term.

But I reckon Abbott is approaching his use by date and may have even exceeded it. He might be polling okay at the moment but can you seriously see the electorate putting up with his I-wanna-be-PM-and-I-want-it-now style for another two years? I can’t. Maybe this latest news, that Gillard’s carbon tax is strongly supported by Abbott’s British counterpart, may well mark the beginning of the end for the yapping dog of Oz politics, Tony Abbott?

And maybe this will see the return of Malcolm Turnbull to the job he still craves as Opposition leader and (in his eyes) Prime Minister in waiting. To again use a footy analogy, I see Turnbull as the Chris Judd of the competition, which is very apt, as Judd is the lead-by-example captain of the silvertailed Carlton club, which has had strong links to the Liberals having had both John Elliot & Dick Pratt as its Presidents. I dislike Carlton as much as I dislike the Liberals but there’s no doubt that since crossing from West Coast a few years ago, captain-courageous Judd has almost single-handedly raised the stocks of the whole club, so much so that it almost makes you forget Carlton’s reputation as the club that cheated its way to several Premierships by illegally buying up top players from other clubs outside the salary cap system. Almost, but not quite. Hmm, Carlton, cheats, Liberals – peas in a pod?

If Turnbull were to be given another chance by the Liberals then they’d have to (finally) accept that the party requires a change of direction by moving more in line with his vision for the country’s future. I like Turnbull. I think he’s brilliant and visionary. And if he somehow does become PM in 2013 it would, for me, make the ALP’s certain demise at that poll a lot easier to take. But are the Liberal Party MPs clever enough to realise that Abbott has run his race and they should be looking at Turnbull as someone who can better lead them back into government? I’m not sure they are.

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