...

But, there’s just one problem. In the current economic make up, clean technology is more expensive than old, outdated technology that creates pollution. So, from a pure economic sense, business is lacking the incentive to switch to cleaner technology.

What’s the solution this time? We need to make clean energy cheaper!

If it’s cheaper to produce clean energy than it is polluting energy, you can bet your bottom dollar businesses will be lining up to invest in solar, wind and geothermal projects across the country.

So how do we make clean energy cheaper than the old, pollution dependent energy we have today? Cue jargon phrases and technical terminology.

Whether it’s via a carbon tax, an ETS or a CPRS, the aim is the same – make clean technology cheaper by putting a price tag on pollution.

Once we take into account the true cost of producing energy from fossil fuels such as coal – the fact that it’s bad for our health, it’s damaging our planet and is making climate change worse – it looks more like a rip off than a bargain.

And there’s a whole lot more incentive to produce clean energy.

http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=3169&gclid=CMn3pre_hqgCFQPabgod4U0Vrg

By "pollution" read "CO2 emission" mostly...

Rudd argued that he “tried to find a path up the middle of that” in order to “preserve the unity of the government”.  He acknowledged it was “the wrong call because we should have simply tried to sail straight ahead”.

It sounds refreshingly honest. But Rudd was the prime minister.  He was uniquely placed to guide the government along the path he believed was right. As many have argued, he could have called an election in early 2010 to resolve the issue.  His mea culpa may warm the cockles of some hearts but it obscures the failure of political judgement and nerve.

It also obscures Rudd’s motivations for speaking out now.  Some suggest Rudd is “positioning himself for a return to the Labor leadership” by appealing to the public over the heads of his caucus colleagues.

It is just as likely that he is simply bent on revenge. 

Whatever it is, the nature of Rudd’s relationship with Gillard and the Labor caucus is a corrosive and pernicious force eating away at the government.  Imagine what a Cabinet meeting is like these days with Rudd sitting there alongside the people he once presided - many say lauded – over.

His presence weakens Gillard.  His presence highlights her powerlessness over him. His presence is a continual reminder of the political calamity last year’s leadership change wrought on the government.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/55430.html

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Gus: of all things, Rudd shows that he's a compulsory teller of whatever... He should have blamed Abbott for the ETS failure... When he was Prime Minister many of us thought he was the leaker of stuff damaging his own position and own government, no so much damaging by its content which did not matter, but by the way the media milked it... People like Rudd are not "bad" people, but they just need to put a bub-dummy in their open traps from time to time (say all the time). It shows Rudd is a diplomatic midget, naive or working his personal agenda without care or understanding... Not the first and last pollie to do so.

In general, it's a very catholic attitude like that of that other catholic midget, Abbott...

Julia can deal with both... But they are bothersome... Rudd can improve... Abbott cannot.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has reserved the right to correct the record as he sees fit concerning his time as prime minister.

Mr Rudd today dismissed criticism from colleagues that he had breached cabinet confidentiality and was undermining Prime Minister Julia Gillard by talking publicly of the divisions that existed among senior ministers over climate change.

Those divisions led to Mr Rudd shelving the emissions trading scheme for three years, a move that helped bring him down as prime minister.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/rudd-stands-by-qa-comments-20110406-1d3o3.html

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Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists she still trusts her predecessor Kevin Rudd despite his apparent breach of collective cabinet responsibility on ABC TV earlier this week.

Speaking to 7.30 last night, Ms Gillard said the Foreign Minister remained "part of the team" and said he had his "shoulder to the wheel" advocating for the government.

Mr Rudd's behaviour has been under renewed scrutiny since Monday night, when he told ABC TV's Q&A program his cabinet was deeply split over the emissions trading scheme that ultimately led to his replacement.

In an apparent breach of cabinet confidentiality, Mr Rudd said some of his ministry wanted to keep the ETS while others wanted it dumped permanently.

He followed that up on Wednesday by saying: "As a former prime minister, I will speak as appropriate to make sure the record is straight."

Last night Ms Gillard refused to criticise her Foreign Minister for his performance.

"I expect my ministers to be out there arguing for the Government's policies and plans and Kevin Rudd was doing that on Monday night," she told interviewer Chris Uhlmann.

Asked directly if she trusted Mr Rudd, she answered: "Well, of course, Kevin is part of my team.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/06/3184252.htm

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Gus: off mike, one could hear the Julia silence that followed saying: "Grow up, Kev"...

Australia's unemployment rate has fallen below 5 per cent with the creation of 37,800 jobs in March.

Looking at the figures to two decimal places, the March unemployment rate was 4.92 per cent, which was the lowest since December 2008.

December's unemployment result, originally listed as 5 per cent, has this month been revised down to 4.95 per cent, meaning Australia broke through the psychologically important 5 per cent barrier at the end of last year.

The fall in unemployment to 4.9 per cent in March was driven by the addition of 32,100 full-time positions, while 5,700 part-time jobs were also added to the economy according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Bureau of Statistics.

March's rise in employment followed a fall of 8,600 jobs in February, driven entirely by a slide in part-time work.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/07/3184811.htm

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Gus: as the Labor government still produces good economic figures on many fronts, in a world still reeling from a bad crash, it does ridicule the mantra that the bad boys of the Liberal (conservative) party have been using to stir the possum. They're only presently stirring their own shiinadequacyttt by being ridiculous... and vain...

from the drum/unleashed...

Lo, as she departed East, this story appeared in The Australian .

"It was late February last year when Kevin Rudd realised the system of distributing GST revenues among the states was a political dog.

"Western Australia's feisty Liberal Premier Colin Barnett was on the warpath after learning his state would receive only 68c of every $1 paid by its residents under the Commonwealth Grants Commission's carve-up for 2010-11. It was unacceptable, he thundered.

The story went on to point out, "So Julia Gillard's much-heralded plan to shake up the method of GST distribution, announced on Wednesday, was not a new idea."

Guess whose idea it was. Yep, the man in the corner with the angelic smile and the sad traces of stigmata.

Who, pray, apart from Kevin Rudd, could ghost-write a story about what Kevin Rudd was thinking in late February last year? Even the plot is familiar: a fallen hero, a man of ideas and action, suffers in silence while his evil murderer gets all the credit

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/08/3186123.htm

Gus: but it may not have been the idea from the man in the corner... I suggest it was actually the idea from the man sitting at the real levers... Swan. Wayne Swan.

see toon at top.

The Gillard government's plans to put a price on carbon have suffered a body blow, with key unions demanding exemptions for industry that are unacceptable to the Greens.

With his own job under threat from a hostile membership, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, demanded yesterday that the steel industry be given a complete exemption from the carbon scheme and that there be generous compensation for the aluminium, cement and glass sectors.

Mr Howes issued the demand after a fiery crisis meeting with nine union branch secretaries from across Australia. It is understood Mr Howes, who is up for re-election before the next federal election, faced being dumped if he did not issue the demands.

The AWU is influential in the Right faction of the ALP and was instrumental in Julia Gillard's coup against Kevin Rudd last year.

Immediately after Mr Howes's announcement, he was backed by the powerful Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, which influences the party's Left.

The loss of support from the industrial wing of the party leaves the government stuck between the unions and the Greens, whose support is critical.

The government is negotiating with the Greens to put a price on carbon and one key sticking point is the level of compensation for trade-exposed industries. The other is the starting price for a tonne of carbon.

As a starting point, the government was proposing the same generous levels of industry assistance devised under the emissions trading scheme negotiated with Malcolm Turnbull.

The Greens derided this as ''backroom deals for rent seekers'' and want less compensation this time.

Carbon tax | Gillard's carbon hopes up in smoke