Julian Walmsley My Personal (and Opinionated) blog!

SMH: Abbott dogged by old carbon comment / Abbott carbon tax interview

In reply to the Article in the SMH today.

Just last night, ABC Television's Q&A Programme aired footage from a Sky News Interview in 2009 showing Opposition Leader Tony Abbott supposedly in support of a Carbon Tax.

In the video Mr Abbott argues: "If you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax?".

Tony Abbott and the Coalition Do NOT support a Carbon Tax

Unfortunately the comments out of context look as if Mr Abbott is in full support of a Carbon Tax, as the media have seemingly reported already. The comments instead were made in relation to the then Prime Minister Rudd's Emissions Trading Scheme and were made as a hypothetical. So basically, his comments were saying: ETS vs Simple Tax. Much of the media and the Australian public believe that these comments were made in regards to Mr Abbott's policy and views on how to best tackle Climate Change. This is also incorrect, and rather, he was stating the best way to put a price on Carbon. After All, he did prefix these comments with: "If you want to put a price on carbon".

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne, who was on the Q&A panel backed Mr Abbott (and what I have said in this article) as was reported in the SMH Article:

"Tony Abbott wasn't actually arguing in favour of a carbon tax, he was talking about all the options that were available," he said, as he once again backed the Coalition's direct action plan.

This interview was conducted several years ago in 2009, and parties do change their stance on issues like this over time. Regardless, during the time these comments were made, his Party was in support of Pricing Carbon, and if anything, it shows his loyalty to the party. During this time, Mr Abbott may not have personally been in support of pricing pollution and at this stage does not seem to have plans to do so in future under his leadership.

The comments were not made as a promise prior to an election like Ms Gillard promising not to have a carbon tax and therefore it is improper to draw similarities between this situation and Julia Gillard's Carbon Tax comments.

You can read the full article here: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/abbott-dogged-by-old-carbon-comment-20110607-1fprb.html, and I invite your comments below.