Labor can't be serious about citizens plan

JULIA Gillard has learnt nothing from Kevin Rudd's failure -- she tells us the planet is under threat, but she cannot act until a political consensus is reached.

Labor's stand is riddled with hypocrisy and gimmicks.

The spin that crippled Rudd seems more intense under the new Prime Minister.

The proposed Citizens Assembly to assess the case for climate change is an unconscious Labor joke -- a grand focus group to conceal its leadership failure.

The Labor Party has changed leaders, but its character defects are unchanged. Gillard, in effect, says pricing carbon is imperative but she cannot act until Tony Abbott agrees with her. Can you believe this?

In truth, there will be no consensus on climate change. It is an issue of clashing ideology and interests. Waiting for this consensus is like waiting for Godot. If Gillard were serious, then history tells what she would do: she would seek an election mandate to introduce an emissions trading scheme bill or impose a modest carbon price in the next parliament. This is what serious leaders do at elections for their policy convictions.

On climate change, Gillard is stuck in Rudd's ditch. She ignites the populist Right with fears of a new tax, and alienates the Left by her stubborn inaction. Labor is a party that has lost its conviction.

Instead, Gillard engages in gimmicks: a climate change commission, a citizens assembly and more funds for renewables. She wants to be rewarded for good intentions. She believes in climate change, believes in pricing carbon but won't act until there is more public support. In truth, she is stalling for time and is unsure about her policy.

The idea of consensus is the great hoax beloved by politicians who want the soft option. The world is divided on the science. It is split on the burden-sharing. There is a chasm between developed and developing nations. The climate change debate is about competing national interests, competing sectoral interests and competing income distribution.

Gillard, like Rudd, has been intimidated by Tony Abbott. With the Opposition Leader opposed to any carbon price and keen to nail Labor for its big new carbon tax, Gillard has chosen to delay rather than to fight for her policy.

At the margin, however, she can claim more credibility. The only way Australia can achieve its 2020 goal of cutting emissions by 5 per cent is by pricing carbon. Abbott's rejection of this view constitutes grand political fraud. Gillard's refusal to press ahead with pricing carbon constitutes failure of conviction. Rarely in Australia's history has the gap between exaggerated promises and policy weakness been more profound.