“The 2013 poll will pit rampant denialism against grudging action based on political expediency.”
Tony Abbott, leader of the conservative coalition and frontrunner in the polls, has called the 14 September election a “referendum on the carbon tax”, the pricing mechanism introduced last year by the minority Labor government. Abbott has gained great mileage from his doom-laden predictions of what the $23-a-tonne carbon price would do to Australia, claiming that it would act as a “wrecking ball” to the economy and darkly forecasting that areas of heavy industry will become “ghost towns”. [The Guardian]