COMBET ANOTHER CLUELESS MINISTER ON CASH FOR CLUNKERS
16-November-2010
16 November 2010
Labor’s Cash for Clunkers program was supposed to be all about carbon abatement – but Climate Change Minister Greg Combet doesn’t have a clue how much these reduced emissions will cost.
This is another humiliating revelation in the saga of Labor’s attempts to introduce (and now hastily patch up) an idea that has repeatedly unravelled in other countries and that its own Industry Minister has condemned.
Mr Combet was asked five times yesterday to state the price of emission reductions under the scheme, and couldn’t answer. (Source: Sky News, PM Agenda, 15 November 2010. Transcript of relevant questions and answers attached.) This only compounds a series of mistakes and contradictions from Julia Gillard, Kim Carr and Peter Garrett.
He was dumbfounded, couldn’t shed any light on something incredibly simple, and fumbled his lines – before eventually evading responsibility by implying it was a question for another Minister to answer.
It shouldn’t be a difficult calculation, given that Labor’s policy statement about the $429 million program clearly says it will reduce one million tonnes of carbon emissions.
Mr Combet either can’t divide 429 by 1 or he knows the Government is preparing to turn its back on all of Ms Gillard’s promises about the scheme.
That Labor can’t get its lines right is a direct consequence of being unable to get the policy right.
Cash for Clunkers was a bad enough idea in the first place, but is becoming more ludicrous and more of a mess with every passing day.
ATTACHMENT – PART-TRANSCRIPT FROM GREG COMBET’S INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SPEERS, SKY NEWS PM AGENDA, 15 NOVEMBER 2010:
SPEERS: You’re saying this Productivity Commission inquiry will examine the effective carbon price of the Cash for Clunkers scheme ...
COMBET: No, no, no ….
SPEERS: … the Solar Rebate scheme; the measures your Government has taken so far?
COMBET: The principal focus of the Productivity Commission will be to focus on the effective carbon price in the economies of our trading partners …
SPEERS: Will it look at the ones here as well?
COMBET: … that will, well, we know the answer to a number of those questions …
SPEERS: What is the carbon price then, of the Cash for Clunkers scheme?
COMBET: Well, I think you’ve got to look ... it doesn’t exist yet.
SPEERS: You’ve modelled it, presumably? You’ve already announced it.
COMBET: Well we’ve announced it, and we understand it, we’re doing the consultations about it, so once the final design is finalised …
SPEERS: But you don’t know what the carbon price of it will be?
COMBET: Once the final design of it is finalised we will know those things, but we know from a lot of the policy mechanisms that there are various things, but the most …
SPEERS: It has already been estimated to be almost $400 a tonne of carbon?
COMBET: Well, we’ll see as its final design is brought forward.
SPEERS: But is that known, or not known?
COMBET: Well, we’ll see. I’m not in a position to say, it’s not in my portfolio area, but we are going to be doing the construction.