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ITS an odd measure of a country when it takes a senior mining executive – BHP Billitons Marius Kloppers – to say we ought to get a move on about taxing carbon.
It shouldnt have been a bombshell except that, since Parliament doesnt resume in Canberra until next week, hes out there on his own in front of the political pack.
The CEOs comment, in a speech to the Australian British Chamber of Commerce in Sydney last week, was widely reported, mostly because a big percentage of the electorate and a surprisingly big number of companies in Australia have been waiting for something to happen about putting a price on the CO2 that goes up into the sky.
Having criticised our politicians for apparent inaction, I have to say the carbon issue certainly played a big part in Kevin Rudds axing as PM.
And Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan must wake up each day and remind themselves that, while they have a majority of two, the good news for them is theyre still in power.
One reason they were nearly put out of office as a first-term government was because of their perceived inaction on climate change.
It looks now as though her government will start looking seriously at the issue sooner rather than later, because its clearly got the numbers for a well thought out proposal.
Greens MP Adam Bandt might say that whatever gets proposed wont go far enough but hes not a majority, and its generally accepted that about half of Coalition MPs want to see a price put on carbon soon.
Given that the Liberal Party is historically seen as the party of big business, rightly or wrongly, it will be hard for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to go significantly against the major elements of Dr Kloppers proposal.
And Dr Kloppers hasnt suddenly gone mad. He knows he and his fellow big mining companies got a very good deal in the Mining Resource Rent Tax negotiated with Ms Gillard just after Mr Rudds exit. And indeed, he said at the lunch that he had every intention of sticking to that deal.
What hes saying about carbon is that the tax base should be adjusted so CO2 emitters pay more tax but until other countries have at least put the pieces in place to go the same way, the emitters should get the tax rebated (another word for a tax break).
Dr Kloppers did dump on the