Brendan Nelson has backed away from the Coalition’s pre-election commitment to introduce emissions trading by 2011 or 2012, saying Australia should not start the scheme before major polluters such as China, India and Russia commit to reducing emissions.
This is the weakest of all positions to take, and is driven purely by the desire to score political points. If he opposed emissions trading outright, it would be a more respectable (albeit misguided) position. But Nelson’s stance is to say, “I won’t dispute that this is needed, but I will not let the issue go as a partisan conflict while I can still get some traction with the Tarago drivers of Australia.”
The Liberal Party needs a leader.
ELSEWHERE: Michelle Grattan correctly identifies this as populism over policy. The Editor gives a blow-by-blow analysis of Nelson’s attempts to duck and weave (which Bolt somehow manages to overlook, despite the fact that he is the first to suggest Rudd is dissembling).
