Reactions to the confirmation of Gillard as PM have included suggestions that some policies might now be modified. So far these suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. In the case of climate change (see my letter below) Gillard has ruled out changes to the carbon tax despite its obvious adverse effects on international competitiveness, which is also being adversely affected by Fair Work Australia. A strategy of more strongly affirming existing policies, as indicated by Gillard, seems unlikely to succeed politically, particularly given the many problems inherent in those policies.
Des Moore
Opportunity on climate
letter published in The Australian, 28 February 2012
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The resolution of Canberra leadership crisis provides an opportunity for the Prime Minister to modify policies that have caused problems within the Labor Party and the community.
Most obviously, Australia should cease to play the leadership game on climate change.
The need to wait for major emitters to reach an agreed international program is reinforced by the recent analyses published by 16 highly qualified scientists revealing basic faults in the analyses used in reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This group of 16 show that projections of temperatures based on IPCC models miss what actually happened by a long way. [They also point out that many times in the past there have been warmer decades than the most recent one. These and other important corrections mean that urgent action to reduce emissions is not required.]
These scientists have established that an independent review is needed of the science. The Gillard government in Canberra should make that number one priority.
Des Moore,
South Yarra, Vic