Ben Eltham in the New Matilda:

The man who will become the chair of the Coalition's proposed business advisory council, Maurice Newman, is perhaps the exemplar of this [climate science denialism] line of thinking. Newman, a wealthy former business executive who once chaired the Australian Stock Exchange, is a well-known climate sceptic. Last year he penned an op-ed in The Australian (where else?) in which he claimed that “we have seen the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discredited...

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How would the wind industry fare under a Coalition government? 

Some excerpts from an article in the Guardian:

The Coalition is under intense pressure from the anti-windfarm lobby and also from many of its own MPs to take much tougher action, either banning new windfarms entirely or abolishing the renewable energy target that provides the industry with an effective federal subsidy. It is promising a review of the Renewable Energy Target (RET)...

The yet-to-be-released [Liberal Party] resources p...
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Greg Combet at Press Council lunch:

"Carbon pricing is here to stay,'' said Minister for Climate Change Greg Combet today in defiance of Coalition claims Labor should bow to an election mandate. Mr Combet said if Tony Abbott were elected Prime Minister "he cannot and will not repeal the carbon price''. "Labor will remain committed to it,'' he told the National Press Club in Canberra. "Tackling climate change has been in our platform for over two decades, and we will fight for what we believe i...

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Tristan Edis from Business Spectator asks whether Greg Hunt or Cory Bernardi is in charge of Coalition climate policy.

"In trying to work out exactly how the Coalition’s Carbon Emission Reduction Fund (ERF) might work, you can’t help but get a little confused by the contradictory statements made about the policy from different members of the Coalition.

Just as shadow climate change minister Greg Hunt starts to reassure you, someone else from the Coalition makes a statement that makes yo...

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Melbourne climate group Lighter Footprints has contacted Bill Shorten and he has written back reassuring the group that the speculation about the ALP backing away from the carbon price, if under pressure from the Coalitions after the election, is unfounded.

Read more from Business Spectator below:

It took nearly two weeks, but Bill Shorten on Thursday finally put to rest rumours on both sides of parliament that he was trying to build support for a Labor backflip on carbon pricing.

The speculat...

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Anthony Green, well-known election analyst, lists Batman as Labor's safest seat with a margin of 24.8%. However, he notes that "the margins for Batman and Grayndler are shown with a two-party preferred [Labor/Liberal] margin despite the Greens finishing second at the 2010 election."  When you look at the seat as  Labor/Greens marginal a different picture emerges. 

From Leone Taylor, 'The Guardian':

Batman is officially Labor’s safest seat, held by a margin of 24.8%.

But an aggregation of the l...

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After Tony Abbott's tearful farewell to Martin Ferguson, the battle for preselection in what has been regarded as one of the ALP's safest seats is hotting up. But how safe is it really? (See post above.) David Feeney is standing for preselection, but Ged Kearney has pulled out. Now there are two new local female candidates standing.
 



From 'The Australian' today:
LABOR'S preselection battle for Martin Ferguson's Melbourne seat of Batman has widened, with two female candidates emerging from the ...

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