The Australian
By: Matthew Franklin, Christian Kerr
New data showing last year was the second-hottest on record has reignited political division over climate change policy, with the government seizing on the figures to declare Tony Abbott unfit for office.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday shattered the political truce of the holiday period, launching a blistering attack on the Opposition Leader and demanding he accept the reality of climate change.
But as Mr Garrett warned that climate change would kill people in the next decade, Mr Abbott counter-punched, accusing the government of politicising natural tragedies such as floods and bushfires for political gain.
He said he accepted that climate change was real, but disagreed with the government's plan to tackle the problem by creating a new tax -- the carbon emissions trading scheme.
"Let's take direct action,'' Mr Abbott said. "Let's not raise the price of daily life.''
His comments came as his environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, said his leader's focus on the ETS as a tax had unsettled the government -- forcing it to resort to shameless politicisation and alarmism instead of rational policy debate.
When Mr Abbott ousted Malcolm Turnbull last month to claim the opposition leadership, he immediately dumped his predecessor's support for Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
The government will submit the CPRS legislation to parliament again next month, but Mr Abbott has promised to produce policies on direct action in coming weeks.
Yesterday, Mr Garrett said a new report from the Bureau of Meteorology that showed the past decade was the second-hottest recorded was clear evidence of climate change and the need for swift action.
He said it highlighted the absurdity of Mr Abbott's claim in an interview last month that global warming had stopped.
"Mr Abbott must face up to the facts -- either show us that in fact, the experts have got it wrong or admit that he has got it wrong,'' Mr Garrett said.
"Is he going to continue to make up figures? How credible is an opposition on this most important issue at the beginning of 2010 when the Bureau of Meteorology releases its climate statement which shows very clearly that warming is happening and yet only a month ago, Mr Abbott has been out on Sydney radio saying that warming has stopped?''
Mr Garrett said the opposition must put aside its doubts about climate change and recognise it would cause more severe climate problems, including a longer annual bushfire period.
It should also accept that "we are going to see significant health-related fatalities by 2020 because of warming temperatures'', Mr Garrett said.
Mr Abbott, asked by The Australian whether the Bureau of Meteorlogy report should be seen as evidence of climate change, said that was an issue for scientists. "We accept the need to take action on climate change,'' he said. "But the government should not politicise events such as floods or cyclones to try to justify a new tax.''
He said the real debate for Australians was not whether climate change existed, but how it should be addressed -- by a tax or by direct action.
As senior government sources said last night that Mr Abbott was continuing to make basic mistakes in the climate change debate, Mr Hunt said his leader's approach was hurting the government. "Mr Garrett and Mr Rudd have deliberately tried to take the focus off our argument about what is the appropriate form of action and to pretend that debate doesn't exist,'' he said.