Don’t do it Helen!
Fran O’Sullivan has a good piece in the HoS today on the public perception of the ETS and the implications for Labour if they make climate change an election issue.
Prime Minister Helen Clark’s threat to campaign on climate change if her Government can’t get parliamentary support to pass the emissions trading scheme (ETS) legislation could well backfire.
A major online survey finds the public feels most of the Government’s efforts are going into tackling climate change issues and supporting families and children. But what they want the policy makers to focus more attention on, is the hot-button issues like the cost of living, the health service and reducing crime.
Quite.
An illustration of this is the 15,000 people, by some estimates, who turned out yesterday to protest against crime.
So the message is Don’t do it Helen! Alternatively, do it and see just where it gets you. Gone by lunchtime?
Later in the article O’Sullivan notes the recommendation in the just issued Garnaut Report in Australia which recommends returning 50% of the ETS revenues to low income earners in mitigation. To date there has been little sign of any steps like that in New Zealand. In fact Adam rather cyncially thinks Labour’s plan was to sue the money to shore up the beneficiary vote and public service salaries. Though goodness knows how they will cope as businesses close down and re-locate outside of NZ.
