For years, the Greens have been accused of not knowing their arse from their elbow when it comes to economic policy. Friends of mine who proudly wear badges of pragmatism say they couldn’t vote Green because it’s ‘an activist party which is too extreme to offer realistic solutions, and could potentially damage the economy’. Sound familiar?
In the meantime, the Labor party is known as the stalwart supporter of the working man: protectionism, taxes and redistribution are plastered all over their public image. The Liberals are the party of free trade and economic rationalism.
So what the fuck is going on with their climate policies?
Labor, with their economist-sanctioned ETS, are behaving like economic rationalists and abandoning their tax in favour of stepping lightly on big business. And it’s Tony Abbott, not Christine Milne, who is championing the super-expensive, tax-bloated, tree-hugging direct action scheme.
Creating a world where what was national self-interest now means self-defeat, climate change has muddled the identities of all our major parties. Or maybe none of them know what they stand for any more.
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