News
Out of the blocks
The gun fired for the start of a long election campaign when Parliament resumed and immediately became a battleground over climate change. Kevin Rudd reintroduced the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, already rejected by the Senate, and Tony Abbott countered with a taxpayer-funded $3.2bn plan over four years that would reward businesses and farmers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Abbott said the Coalition scheme, which included tree planting and solar panel programs, would match Rudd’s 5% emissions reduction target without higher taxes or loss of jobs. Rudd ridiculed the plan, calling it a “con job” by a man who’d said climate change was “absolute crap”.

