Julia Gillard has promised to break her promise.
During the election campaign, Ms Gillard promised there would be no Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and no carbon tax. In fact, there was to be no price on carbon whatsoever. It was an iron clad, rock-solid commitment made by the ‘real Julia’ who supposedly emerged, chrysalis like, during the election.
Unfortunately, it is now clear that what emerged from the chrysalis wasn’t a beautiful butterfly but just more garden variety dishonesty that is now, unfortunately, a core characteristic of Labor politics.
While post-election moves to impose a price on carbon dioxide (that’s the stuff we all exhale) were mooted by Labor as a verbal pacifier for their new pals in parliament – the Greens – Ms Gillard ramped up the rhetoric this week.
Claiming that it is ‘crunch time for a carbon price’, the Prime Ministerial dissimulator wants to legislate for her new tax in the New Year.
This raises many questions, not least of all how can we have faith in a Prime Minister who regards such blatant dishonesty as a measure of her ‘conviction’?
While Ms Gillard may be ideologically dedicated to higher taxes and the desire to impose more government control on every Australian, her commitment to a carbon price defies common sense and the latest scientific evidence regarding climate change.
Every day, new evidence emerges that the climate alarmists have got it wrong. The earth is no longer warming and the alarmist camp has been exposed as riddled with scoundrels, shysters and snake oil salesmen.
The facts simply do not fit the climate change alarmist theories, no matter how loudly and for how long the discredited deliver their Cassandra-like prophesies.
So why is Ms Gillard so eager to put Australian industry and Australian families at a disadvantage compared with their global peers?
The answer is rather disappointing for the people of Australia. Unfortunately our government has no real agenda and they are desperate to appear strong and decisive – whatever the cost to our nation.
Consider for a moment the legislative priorities for the Gillard Government thus far. They are having public spats about euthanasia and gay marriage – hardly top order issues for our national government.
They are desperately pursuing their broadband plan even thought the cost is now estimated to have blown out to over $55 billion. How they can expect the parliament to endorse such a plan without releasing the business case or conducting a cost-benefit analysis beggars belief.
Recent news that suggests comparable broadband speeds are now being achieved over wireless networks at a much lower cost should alarm every Australian taxpayer concerned with our growing national debt levels.
So denuded of a policy agenda is this government that they have only scheduled four weeks of parliamentary sitting before the budget in May of next year!
A government without an agenda is like a boat adrift on the open ocean. It is at the mercy of the elements and cannot chart its own course. Such circumstances are a danger for passengers and crew alike.
And like the boat adrift, a rudderless government, led by a perfidious Prime Minister, is a danger to us all.