Labor shelves emissions scheme
Labor shelves emissions scheme
Updated
ETS on ice: Senator Wong says the Government remains committed to the scheme as the best way of reducing carbon pollution. (AAP Image: Dean Lewins)
It was once a centrepiece of the Federal Government’s election strategy, but now the emissions trading scheme (ETS) has been relegated to the shelf until at least 2013.
Delaying the scheme means the Government could save $2.5 billion from its budget over the next three years, because it would not be paying compensation to households and industries.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently said climate change remained a fundamental economic, environmental and moral challenge, whether it was popular or not.
But Government sources say it was decided last week to remove the scheme from next month’s budget, bowing to the political reality that the Senate is unlikely to pass the ETS any time soon.
The Upper House has already blocked the ETS legislation twice.
The bills are before the Parliament again but the Senate has delayed the debate while it examines the deal that Mr Rudd struck with former Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.
The bottom line is that neither the Opposition, now led by Tony Abbott, nor the Greens like the amended legislation, so it remains in limbo.
Greens leader Bob Brown says Mr Rudd has caved in to Mr Abbott’s attack on the ETS.
“If it is true, it is quite irresponsible because it signifies a climate change collapse by the Government in the face of the right-wing criticism from the Opposition and others that it is a great big tax,” he said.