Rudd is about to get mugged by realpolitik in the wake of the his bureacratic buddy's climate change report. You all knew the details by now. 90% reductions in carbon emissions etc.
This places a huge price on use of fuel. I forsee an MAD MAX post-apocolytic scenario where aussie are willing to kill for a tank of 'guzzelene'. Maybe that would be more exiting than Rudd's immasculated holiday island view of the our future. I'd prefer cross-bows and sharpened boomerangs and people who's names are adjectives like Humungous.
But I digress. The fact is that nobody likes the sound of this report. It even suggests socialist redistribution from the evil carbon-farting middle-classes so help pay for it all. Give a bureacrat power to shape the future - what do you expect, realism?
Rudd is culpable in encouraging these flights of fancy. He has revealed the ridiculousness of his concensus driven pen-pusher approach to politics.
Politics is about what is possible.
Howard had a tougher line with developing countries than Rudd. His strong stance was achieving more than Rudd to create international political solutions to climate change. He was telling China what to do at APEC, it is quite the opposite with Rudd.
Why do people simultaneously view China as a poor developing country with it comes to climate change, and an economic super-power when it comes to buying our resources. This kind of double-think is the stock-in-trade of the left.
Howard could see the amount of power we had and he used it for good. Rudd with his mystical belief in the attraction of concensus and his pandering to the narrow interests at home and abroad.
Rudd wants to lead by concensus. More double-think. Rudd's 'leadership' is the kind of pointless mania that leads all less-democratic countries into the abyss. The rest of the world will not follow. The do not want to emulate us, no matter how much Rudd thinks the sun shines out of his arse. We need to get into the rough and tumble of real political solutions. We need to stand up for ourselves.
Howard's scepticism about climate change was a further sign of his realism. He always did what he could behind the scenes (we actually met out Kyoto targets unlike just about every country that signed up) but did not jump to hasty conclusions. When he really took on the climate change issue he was able to secure great results for this country and the world because his grounding in reality made him a superior politician. The non-signing of Kyoto added to our strength in negotiations with China. If we were still holding out on signing that we might be able to convince China and the US to at least have non-binding targets.
There really is no compelling arguement for us to endure the hardship Garnaut delights in when the effect of it will only be a drop in the ocean compared to the big emitters. It's a double whammy. We get the economic pain of the carbon-cuts AND the global warming because we will not have stopped it.
We should be willing to do it, but only to a level that wont put us at an economic disadvantage, and then only if China et al accept that burden too. This would have been possible under Howard.
Let me be clear on this: Howard combatted climate change better than Rudd. Rudd will force us to make cuts that will make no difference but his lack of political backbone means the big polluters will not be under pressure to do the same. The world will be warmer under Rudd.
The Libs are wise to stick to a realistic path on responses to climate change and not get caught up in the lefty lunacy. This path is popular and Rudd knows it. I'm please to hear that Nelson (and Abbott) are cooling on the bi-partisan approach to the intervention. I hope it's not too late for us to distance ourselves from Rudd's other-worldy approach on other issues aswell.
Rudd has got himself into a mess here. How will he contain the fallout of his having to reject his own expert's recommendations? He'll end up contructing a solution that is almost identical to Howard's. I guess the polls are so great noone will notice the hypocrisy. Whatever.
If all I do is point this out and defend Howard's legacy I will consider my job done. The truth of the conservative poltical view and the affectiveness of this approach will be vindicated. If the nation gets conservative policies i'm happy, even if they do come from the ALP. Of course the Libs would do it a damn sight better. The public mood will eventually recognise this.
