Tag Archive for 'House of Reps'

Barnaby’s choice: ETS ramifications edition

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 2 months ago
in Climate change and Politics
. 40 Comments

As another followup to recent posts on Barnaby Joyce’s egofest (driven by the Howardian egofest), Lawrence Springborg has weighed in – in the Barnaby corner:

Queensland’s Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the comments helped highlight the faults in Labor’s scheme.

“Nobody should be surprised with Barnaby’s colourful language and original language, you always get that from Barnaby and that’s fine,” he said.

“One thing he’s actually addressed…is the cost of this to Australian families, who are already struggling in very uncertain economic times.”

So it looks like The Borg and the LibNats are signing up for the denialist club. Or sort of. Springborg’s position is somewhat obscured in the death by a thousand rhetorical questions maneouvre. And what, I wonder, does this mean for the CPRS’ path through the Senate?

Malcolm Turnbull, who is yet to announce a position on emissions trading, played down the differences between the Coalition.

He said the Coalition would speak with “one voice” on emissions trading.

“We’re very committed to action on climate change that is economically responsible and environmentally effective,” he said.

“We work as a very close coalition and I’ve no doubt that we will be responding to this legislation with one voice.”

Continue reading ‘Barnaby’s choice: ETS ramifications edition’

Barnaby’s choice

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 2 months ago
in Howardia and Politics
. 21 Comments

Maybe it’s still the silly season in Australian politics. Or maybe any development involving both John Howard and the Queensland Nationals is by definition surreal. Barnaby Joyce has apparently been chatting to John Howard, and has indicated a willingness to stand for a lower house seat in order to take over the Nats’ federal leadership. It’s tempting to suggest that Howard’s just playing spoiler in the Coalition pack, but the key is probably the notion that Joyce could win back “Howard’s battlers”. Either way, it’s about Howard’s legacy, or in other words, his ego – and Joyce’s.

The rambling and disconnected musings from Joyce in the report in The Australian demonstrate how unfocused a champion he would be. It’s tempting to enumerate the contradictions in Joyce’ blah, but perhaps commenters should have some fun too. It may be, of course, that a Joyce run for the Reps would be attractive to Malcolm Turnbull if it were believed that it would take his focus off the Senate. That, of course, would be wishful thinking.

The only way Howard’s idea might make sense is if you believe that Joyce’s social conservatism is attractive. Kevin Rudd, however, has that in spades himself, and if the 2007 election proved anything, it showed that the “values” debate and the culture wars had lost their electoral lustre, if indeed they ever had any.

Update [dk.au]: Possum on Barnaby’s Electoral Dartboard