By Paul Sheehan
On July 28, a beautiful blonde, Sarah Murdoch, standing in front a beautiful backdrop,, gave an eloquent and thoughtful launch of Tony Abbott's manifesto for power, his book Battlelines, while Lachlan Murdoch and Tony Abbott looked on appreciatively.
Inside the covers of this book, for all to see if they cared to look, were the warning signals to Malcolm Turnbull and his allies in the Liberal Party about Tony Abbott's attitude towards an emissions trading scheme.
On page 171 Abbott quotes, with approval, the Swedish climate dissident, Bjorn Lomborg:
Natural science has undeniably shown us that global warming is man-made and real. But just as undeniable is the economic science, which makes it clear that a narrow focus on reducing carbon emissions could leave future generations lumbered with major costs, without major cuts in temperatures."
Tony Abbott with Sarah Murdoch at the launch of his book Battelines, which spelt out his position on climate change.Credit: Jacky Ghossein
This proves that Abbott is not a climate change denier but a emissions trading sceptic, a big difference.
Abbott then adds: "Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions."
He also questions the real objectives of many climate alarmists:
"It's hard to take climate alarmists all that seriously, though, when they're as ferociously against the one proven technology that could reduce electricity emissions to zero, nuclear power, as they are in favour of urgent reduction in emissions. For many, reducing emissions is a means to achieving a political objective they could not otherwise gain."
Another warning to the Turnbull camp that has been there for all to see, if they cared to look, was Abbott's relationship with the most powerful powerbroker in the federal Liberal Party, Senator Nick Minchin, a seasoned former cabinet member and prime ministerial confidant. Abbott and Minchin are close. Very close.
For the second time in his career, Turnbull took on Minchin. And for the second time in his career, he ended up as political roadkill.
So, too, is Joe Hockey, who has never looked like a real leader and proved it in the fire and blood of battle.
Dead, too, is Hockey's would-be deputy. Peter Dutton, who deserted his Queensland electorate of Dickson earlier this year, was humiliatingly rejected by the Liberal grass-roots when he tried to parachute into a safe seat on the Gold Coast, and who will be nowbe lucky to keep his seat at the next election
Abbott's decision today to lead his party to reject the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme legislation - and thus be willing to fight a double-dissolution election on the issue - was also foreshadowed in Battlelines, on page 172:
Another big problem with any Australian emissions reduction scheme is that it would not make a material difference to atmospheric carbon concentrations unless the big international polluters had similar schemes. accounts for about 1 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. At recent rates of growth,'s increase in emissions in about a year could match's entire carbon dioxide output. Without binding universal arrangements, any effort by could turn out to be a futile gesture, damaging local industry but making no appreciable dent in global emissions."
No one has ever said Abbott lacked the courage of his convictions. And those convictions were laid out in 200 pages of political manifesto on July 28 this year.