My understanding is...and I certainly could be wrong on this...that their current government,at the last election,promised there’d be no carbon tax but after the election one was enacted nevertheless.It’s also my understanding that the tax is wildly unpopular.I’ve pinged one of our esteemed Aussie members to see what,if anything,he might have to add to the discussion.
That's correct - Julia Gillard went to the last election having pledged "There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead". But because we wound up with a hung Parliament and she needed the Greens to govern, she had to back down on that pledge to get their support - and it upset a lot of people. Kevin Rudd, our recycled Prime Minister, has now officially dumped the carbon tax in the lead up to the next election, but instead he's going to have a 'carbon price' which is basically what this argument is about. He's hoping that it will be seen as different enough to the carbon tax to persuade voters he's corrected Labor's broken promise. It might get him some votes.