What does Tony Abbott stand for? We now have our third Australian Liberal Party leader since the election at the end of 2007. Tony has come out with all guns blazing, ready to attack government  policy. On the other hand, he has also announced that his party has no policies of it’s own and is starting with a clean slate. He promises they will have policies before parliament resumes in February. Now should we believe him?

Four months ago, Tony Abbott released a book entitled “Battle Lines”. It has been described as a manifesto for the Liberal Party. Somewhat of a guide book that will see them returned to power in the Australian government. At that time he was not Liberal party leader and claimed to have no leadership aspirations. However during several media appearances to launch his tome it did seem obvious that the book revealed directions Tony would like to take if he were to become leader at some point.

One topic particularly stands out, climate change. The Liberal Party has made it clear it will fight tooth and nail to defeat the CPRS (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme) proposed by the Labor government. The main argument being against an Emmissions Trading Scheme. Tony Abbott and his other senior ministers have described the ETS as a “great big tax on everything”. Even though his party currently has no climate change policy of it’s own, he has vowed not to introduce such a tax burden on Australian families.

Or did he? Within a couple of days he had qualified his statement, saying that there may be scope for a carbon tax at some time in the future. Just four short months ago he was spouting the value of a carbon tax to help reduce levels of carbon pollution. So it would appear that even though the Australian Liberal Party has no plan (or even a policy) for a carbon tax right now, it is likely to propose one at some time in the future.

This is the same political party that once claimed they would never introduce a GST, which could also be described as a “great big tax on everything”. Despite the current denials, another tax on everything would not be a surprise. February is in he future, lets see what what they propose.

Filed under: Category Environment, Politics | Tags: cprs,ets,government,liberal party,Tony Abbott by Steven Cousley