Rudd is simply a policy coward, because he has failed to stand up for an issue that he reckoned he passionately believed in. At the end of the day when push came to shove, he backed down.

The term “girly man” comes to mind.

Anon, yes I reckon we are counting too much on China as you know and that perhaps fact the peak of the construction boom in China may have already ended? Thanks for the link, Roger and I seem to have similar views.

I have also read several articles in the Asian media about signs of overbuilding in China. When it comes to watching Asia I simply don’t pay any attention to most finance commentators in Australia as they simply don’t have a clue.

For those who are following the China story Roger Montgomery just wrote an article expressing views similar to what Greg was talking about awhile back:
http://blog.rogermontgomery.com/is-australia%e2%80%99s-future-written-inside-a-fortune-cookie/

Borrow money and spend like a drunken sailor – easy, let’s do that.
Cut back on stimulus as economy ‘charges’ back (note that readers of this blog know otherwise) – too hard, dropped.
Return budget to surplus/pay down deficit – looking like it’s too hard.
ETS/Climate change – too hard, dropped.
Tax review – too hard, dropped.
Health – flavour of the day and designed to show ‘courage’, but ultimately too hard and will be dropped before the election.

K Rudd has the courage of a gnat. He deserves to be a oncer. But what we’re waiting for now is for Abbott and the coalition to show that they have credible alternatives.

Rudd complains about red tape – when his ETS will create one giant financial exchange with regulations that have not even been invented yet.  I suspect the same traders will be trying to get in on the action that were involved in Rudd’s GFC.  You know those nasty banker types that he hates so much. 

He is such a hypocrite.  I’m sure there will be a whole new set of financial instruments created to trade carbon credits and carbon derivatives.  Is he going to explain those regulations to everybody?  He cant have it both ways. 

You can’t say that an emissions trading scheme is going to be regulation free.  Business are going to have to deal with fluctuations in interest rates as well as fluctuations in the price of carbon as well as fluctuations on the exchange rates.  It could get very complicated.

I think that it is good to have someone that has the guts to stand up against the fraud that is the CPRS.

Rudd is not looking so cocky now either. I see he backed away from his “this deal is only good for a week” rhetoric. He also backed away from Tony Abbott asking for public debates on the issue. This was the PM’s big opportunity to “sell” us this grand ETS of his. Why does he not want to back up his rhetoric and really tell us what it is and how it works? He knows it is a fraud that will do nothing for the environment.

This just shows how dangerous it is for politicians to ramble on about something they have no clue about.

I am sure a primary school child could come up a list of ways we could reduce our use of fossils fuels without a tax starting with better public transport, less MP’s jetting overseas for study tours, smaller cars, more energy efficient homes etc.

Then if we were really serious we could use Nuclear Power…no extra tax needed to get that going.

http://joannenova.com.au/

Let’s hope the CPRS legislation does not pass the Senate so that we can have a real debate about the ETS and what it actually means for the economy etc.

The Rudd Government has taken 2 years to get this far, an extra 6 months is not going to cause any harm. In fact even if Australia does nothing about CO2 emissions it won’t affect global temperatures at all!

I’m still not sure how ice caps melt when they are located in areas that have constant sub zero temperatures… The reporters don’t really explain that one…

Anyway, as I write this it looks like the CPRS Bill won’t pass Parliament tonight. Wonder what will happen from here?

Of course many journalists have made everything even more confusing by linking any opposition to the ETS with climate change when in fact they are two different issue. Just because someone opposes a new tax and a confusing piece of legislation does not mean they are not concerned about C02 emissions. But it seems most reporters just can’t grasp this concept.

Turnbull has been sounding more like Rudd everyday this week. He has been slamming sceptics and all of a sudden has contracted the same compulsion from Rudd of wanting to ram this through the Senate before we know what the rest of the world is doing. I do not see what the problem is with waiting till next month just to see what everyone brings to the table.

Rudd now also wants to give hand outs to other smaller nations to help them in this fight. We are in billions of dollars of debt and this Bill is going to cost people in our own country money and Rudd wants to go off and hand out more money like it grows on trees. So not only do we have to pay for our own ETS we now have to foot the bill for others too. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/29/2756552.htm

This week in parliament has been completely crazy and highlights the very poor situation we are now in. We have Rudd who thinks he is king and the people that are suppose to be holding him to account are now getting in bed with him on this. It is crazy.