Julia Shows John Key How to Handle ETS

Prime Minister John Key should look across the Tasman to his newly installed Australian counterpart for a lesson in how to handle the controversial emissions trading scheme (ETS), according to the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

“ Australia’s new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, in her first media conference today, rebuffed suggestions that she might seek to revive Australian’s stalled version of an ETS, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Ms Gillard made it clear that she will wait until after the next general election to gauge Australian opinion on the CPRS, and will proceed only if she finds there is in her words ‘community consensus’,” said the coalition’s honorary secretary, Terry Dunleavy.

“This is a lesson for our Prime Minister, who promised us pre-election that New Zealand would harmonise with Australia in legislative action on emissions of so-called ‘greenhouse’ gases. By persisting with its moderated ETS scheme in spite of the Rudd Labor government having months ago withdrawn its CPRS bill, the National government failed to honour that undertaking.

“But Julia Gillard has now given John Key a solution: defer any further action until there is community consensus. With serious opposition to the New Zealand ETS coming from farming and business organisations and countless ordinary Kiwis, as well as from within the membership of his own National Party, there is no way that Mr Key, or his ministerial propagandist Nick Smith, can claim any semblance of community consensus within New Zealand. Until that level of consensus has been established, and tested in a general election, our Prime Minister should follow the lead of his new Australian counterpart and defer implementation of the current ETS legislation due to come into effect next week. In so doing, he will honour National’s pre-election undertaking to harmonise with Australia.

“The ETS legislation will remain on our statute books as a demonstration that New Zealand is ready do its fair share once the rest of the world agrees how best to address climate issues.

“Meanwhile, Mr Key could also reflect on a variation of a famous line taken by a legendary earlier British Prime Minister: never in the history of New Zealand lawmaking have so many faced such heavy cost at the hands of so few,” said Mr Dunleavy.

ENDS

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