Did anyone else notice the irony tonight in the position and statements of Tony Abbott’s response to the release of the Productivity Commission report on Emission Reduction. Mr Abbott had positioned himself in a coal mine and vowed to fight to “keep this mine open into the future”. A coal mine is an icon for the old economy. I think it is telling that Tony chose the depths of a coal mine to frame his response to a thorough, credible and independant dismantling of one of his main arguments against the Government’s proposed carbon tax; that is, that other countries are not acting to reduce emmissions.
For the world economy to have any hope of curbing CO2 emissions sufficiently to keep global temperature below managable levels, coal fired energy generation must be phased out quickly. Coal is in the front line and Tony is there, grim faced, defending it!
It is a pity that he was not around 200 years ago and he could have carried the red flag in front of the steam trains.
Tony Abbott has shown clearly tonight that he will fight all attempts to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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