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3 in 4 voters support an ETS

July 16, 2008

THREE-QUARTERS of voters believe Australia should act on climate change even if the rest of the world does not, according to a new poll that will hearten the Rudd Government as it prepares to release its discussion paper on emissions trading tomorrow.

The Essential Media poll found 58 per cent of Coalition voters believe Australia should take action even if other countries do not, despite the fact that Brendan Nelson spent most of last week suggesting that acting before the world as a whole would be “economic suicide”.

Only 25 per cent of the 1700 voters polled believed Australia should act only when other major economies agreed to do so.

After a week in which the Opposition Leader publicly toyed with a tougher and more sceptical stance on climate change and emissions trading before finally falling back into line with his party’s policy, Dr Nelson is taking a holiday this week — a decision defended by his frontbench colleagues yesterday.

Climate change spokesman Greg Hunt said the Opposition Leader needed a break and other senior Coalition figures would be available to comment on the Government’s emissions trading paper in his absence.

“We’ll have a collective response on the day,” Mr Hunt said.

Later in the day, Dr Nelson’s office confirmed he would break his holiday tomorrow to respond to the Government’s discussion paper on behalf of the Coalition. Dr Nelson will also be breaking his holiday on Thursday to attend a reception with the Pope.

The Government’s green paper runs to hundreds of pages, but will not contain vital information about targets for greenhouse gas reductions or the potential economic costs of proposed action, because crucial Treasury modelling is not yet finished.

Lenore Taylor, The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24021126-11949,00.html 

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