The Rudd government's climate adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, last night again threw his support behind the Greens' proposal of an interim levy on polluters to break the political deadlock over the government's fatally flawed emissions trading scheme.

Professor Garnaut also condemned the billions of dollars in handouts to polluters, describing the 'allocation of large amounts of public money to private industry for no good public purpose' as 'an abomination'.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has welcomed Professor Ross Garnaut's support for the Greens proposal for an interim carbon tax until the nation finalises its carbon emissions reduction strategy.

Professor Garnaut called the proposal ‘another politically practical way forward'.

Senator Brown and Greens climate spokesperson Senator Christine Milne wrote to Prime Minister Rudd last week flagging the $23 per tonne carbon tax, to begin this July and apply only to the 1000 worst polluters in Australia.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today that an effective system to deliver a safe climate must be part of any future tax system for Australia.

Yesterday the Greens proposed an interim scheme including a two year $20 carbon price and $5 billion for households assistance to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency to break the Senate deadlock on real climate action.

I rise this evening to speak on the government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, introduced in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 and related bills. As members in the chamber would be aware, the Greens have been campaigning on climate change for more than 20 years. In fact, I was appointed to Australia's first greenhouse council in Victoria in 1990, when I was in the Tasmanian parliament. I have been working on that issue ever since in the state parliament, in the federal parliament and globally through the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

 STANDING COMMITTEE ON ECONOMICS

Greg Combet's deliberate misrepresentation of the Greens' position this morning shows that the Government is worried by the Greens' campaign to fix or oppose the emissions trading bill.

Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, Greg Combet, told ABC2 this morning that the Greens wanted to "remove any assistance for the coal industry whatsoever" when the Greens have consistently called for significant structural adjustment funding for coal communities.

After he embarrassed her government last week by saying the CPRS may be so bad that it should be taken out the back and shot (well, not quite),it seems that Minister Wong has excised Professor Garnaut entirely from her vocabulary.

The Australian Greens say the growing discontent over the Government's carbon trading scheme - including the Government's own advisor Professor Ross Garnaut - now means it's imperative that an immediate review be held of the scheme's targets and design.

This post was published originally this morning at ABC Online

One of the most important numbers in Australia's history was revealed yesterday - a number that carries with it the hopes and fears of millions of people and embodies our priorities as a nation, our balancing of the relative worth of human beings.

Monday, 1 December 2008

Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has again ducked answering a question on what goals in tackling climate change Australia will take to the global conference in Poznan, Poland next week.