In a stunning reversal, the Australian Labor Party bails out on the ‘carbon tax’

wattsupwiththat.com ^ | October 11, 2014 | Anthony Watts

[naturalman1975]

I read the Sydney Morning Herald with some regularity and I got the sense that this tax was a central issue in their most recent election and it was a big factor in their Labor Party (the lefties) losing power.Of course I could be wrong...10,000 miles of separation can make it difficult to accurately measure a nation's pulse.

You are right - it was a big deal and it was a huge factor in them losing the election - not just the tax itself, but the fact that they went to the previous election categorically ruling it out, and then introduced it (to be fair, they were not expecting to wind up with a hung Parliament and needing the Greens to form office, and the Greens demanded this change - nonetheless it was a huge broken promise - "There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead" became an Australian equivalent of America's "Read my lips. No new taxes."

And not all that much has really changed with this announcement - Labor's policy so far hasn't changed, they just won't be calling it a tax anymore, but a price. It's a promising sign that Shorten is backing away but this raises his performance on this issue from an F to a D at most. Better but not by much.