The Sydney Morning Herald brings out a special kiddies edition to explain the carbon tax

This is what passes for progressive thought.

Mike Carlton in The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday:

Imagine that Julia Gillard has invented the Easter Bunny. "Let me just make the point here, if I may, that this little furry friend will be a wonderful boost for hardworking Australian families in this great country of ours in terms of chocolate Easter egg outcomes for all our kiddies," she says. The opposition, these days in a permanent lather of outrage, throws the levers to incandescent. "Gillard never once mentioned rabbits at the election. Chocolate eggs will kick the guts out of the battling Australian egg industry." This is what passes for conservative thought nowadays.

More progressive thought. Jessica Irvine in the SMH on Saturday:

I used to wear braces. I still wince at the memory of regular trips to the orthodontist to have them tightened. Aaargh. It hurts even now. After a few days my teeth would eventually settle into their new place, only to earn yet another trip to the orthodontist for tightening. A carbon emissions trading scheme is like a set of braces for the economy. Every year, the government intervenes to tighten up on the amount of emissions permitted, raising their price. It hurts. High-polluting industries feel the pinch the hardest. Then, once things have settled in place, the government tightens the screws again, cutting the level of emissions permitted again, and so on. Along the way businesses must make a decision. Will they keep buying ever more expensive permits to pollute, or will they change their behaviour to be more energy efficient and burn less fossil fuel?

Or will they move offshore? Paul O'Malley of Bluescope Steel in The Australian on Thursday:

If you tax the local steel producer, you are basically saying we want to encourage imports of steel and hide the carbon overseas. For emissions-intensive, trade-exposed businesses there should not be a cost until our competitors face a cost. There should not be a free ride for imports that sees local manufacturers move their production offshore and sees us hiding carbon in someone else's back yard.

Julia Gillard on Wednesday:

There is no excuse in a society like ours, in a peaceful, wonderful country like Australia, for people making threats or engaging in acts of violence.

Sing along with the PM and blame the opposition. The SMH editorialises on Saturday:

The opposition's mistake is not to reject -- indeed to encourage -- the vicious and bullying tone of its unelected allies. This thuggish approach was seen this week in interviews with Gillard, and in the news that the independent MP Tony Windsor had been personally targeted by political opponents and had received death threats for his support for the government. It was emphasised when some Coalition MPs compared Gillard -- absurdly -- to the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. To his discredit, Abbott did the absolute minimum to discourage this behaviour.

Blaming Abbott. Garry Bannan writes to The Age on Tuesday:

Tony Abbott has a plan to roll back the proposed carbon tax. It's a pity he does not have a plan to roll back the reality of global warming.

Phil Alexander in a letter to The Age on Tuesday:

Tony Abbott has finally found a job he can handle, petrol pump attendant.

Lyn Mitchell in The Age on Tuesday:

It's a pity Tony Abbott doesn't transfer his obsession to and worship of money into worship of the trees, plants and air around him. Many people want a future for their families.

But even in The Age's Modern Times column on Friday:

Amazing, is it not? Unelected Prime Minister Gillard tells a carbon-tax porkie so big that her nose has become a newspaper cartoonists' smorgasbord, yet what do we find? Furious letter-writers whacking Opposition Leader Abbott! In fact there was a special "Tony Abbott" section in The Age on Tuesday, six letters all taking a shot at the Speedo Kid.

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