Labor and Greens bicker over ETS failure

Labor v. Greens

Labor can see votes leaking away to the Greens thanks to the abandoning of the ETS, so are now in damage control, attacking the Greens as the ulimate reason for the scheme’s demise:

Government frontbencher Anthony Albanese says the Greens need to be held to account for their role in blocking the legislation late last year.

“If they had voted for a price on carbon, we’d have one today,” he told Channel Ten on Sunday.

“We did everything possible to get a CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) introduced.”

Greens leader Bob Brown says his party has no regrets about voting down the scheme.

He says the ETS did not pass the Senate because Labor chose to negotiate with the Coalition.

“They got into bed with the Liberals; now they are crying foul,” he said.

“The Greens have the Ross Garnaut alternative of a carbon tax before the Parliament, before the Government. It can take it up now, get it through before the election and get back the lost public esteem.”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the Government could have negotiated a deal with the Greens, but chose not to.

“If Kevin Rudd was serious about tackling climate change, why has he not met with Bob Brown?” she said. [Because he realises that doing a deal with the Greens would turn off more voters than he’s losing already]

“Why has he refused to negotiate with the Greens? This is a Government that has made mistake after mistake, backflip after backflip, and they don’t want to wear the consequences or take any responsibility.”

Now, now, children. At least we all agree on that last summary of Rudd and Labor.

Read it here.