Abbott absurdities on climate change

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, shifted his mobile scare campaign over a carbon price into hyperbole-overdrive this week.

Mr Abbott made the following wildly untruthful claims.

Claim 1:“Well I’ve said all along that the carbon tax ultimately spells death for the coal industry...” (Doorstop, 26 June 2011).

Fact 1: Treasury modelling of the former Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) showed that with a carbon price in place the Australian coal industry’s output would grow by 66 per cent by 2050.

Claim 2:“It will destroy the steel industry, the cement industry, the aluminium industry, the motor industry. It will be, over time, the death of heavy manufacturing in Australia...” (Doorstop, 26 June 2011).

Fact 2: Steel, cement, aluminium industries and other heavy industries would have been shielded from nearly 95 per cent of a carbon price under the former CPRS’s industry assistance package.

Claim 3:“Now, the Government keeps peddling this lie that the rest of the world is on the verge of introducing carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes...” (Interview with Ray Hadley, Radio 2GB, 27 June 2011).

Fact 3: Carbon taxes are in place in the UK, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada. They are being considered in Japan and South Africa. Emissions trading schemes are in place in the European Union, Switzerland, New Zealand and several states in the United States. They are being piloted or planned in Japan, South Korea and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guandong.

As long as Mr Abbott continues peddling untruths I will continue issuing these Bulletins to reassure the public and to hold the Opposition Leader accountable for his unconscionable conduct.

But can we expect more from an Opposition Leader who today said:

“So look, it may well be, as you say Michael, that most Australian economists think that a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme is the way to go. Maybe that’s a comment on the quality of our economists rather than on the merits of the argument.”

Instead of making these absurd statements, Mr Abbott should be explaining to average households why he will be charging them $720 a year and giving it to the big polluters.