14 DAY TRIAL // Over the last year or so, the Australian government attempted to create a set of environment bills that would ensure that the country took an active part in fighting global warming and climate change. Poll results showed that the population wanted their representatives to do so, but it would appear that the big industry, which was bound to get hit by the measure hardest, didn't. They threatened the Australian government that they would move outside of the nation, if they didn't have things done their way. As a result, the implementation of the bills was delayed. Now, the government strikes back – it threatens to cancel the $9.4 billion in assistance that it has planned for the industry, if the legislation does not pass.
The move is being hailed by environmentalists, who do not have the resources to fight multi-million-dollar lobbyists hired by Australia's large mining industry. A significant percentage of the country's electricity is generated by fossil fuels, which make the nation one of the most polluting worldwide. The average citizen is against this state of affairs, but the actions of the government have been paralyzed by the stubborn industry over the last few months. The new move is bound to make them think twice about blocking the public-backed initiatives in the Parliament and the Senate.
“Voting for this scheme means Australia is locking in certainty and guaranteed assistance for Australian industries. Delaying a vote would jeopardize that guarantee and remove certainty for industry. If we have to go back to the drawing board, everyone involved will have to run the gauntlet of the political process, something we know cannot guarantee certainty,” Greg Combet, the junior climate change minister of Australia, said more diplomatically. Reuters quotes the official as telling that exporting, coal and electricity compensation are at risk, if the bills do not pass voting.
In addition to promising the AU$12 billion for the large industry, the government was also planning on handing out free carbon permits for more than a year to iron and steel manufacturers, as well as to aluminum smelters, which would have basically meant that, for them, the cap'n'trade scheme would have begun a year later than for anyone else. However, representatives of the industry stressed that the deadline was too short, and that they needed more time, or less regulations.
“If we are going to have an ETS (emissions trading scheme), it will have to be with that joint sitting. And the only way you get that joint sitting is with a double dissolution. This is to important to be delayed. The government will be pushing the issue up into the Senate and bringing the debate on,” Kim Beazley, a politics professor, who has also been the former leader of the Australian Labor Party, now led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, told Sky Television in an interview.