Labor is showing the signs of becoming obsessed about the Greens the same way they became obsessed by John Howard. Labor ministers have a point when they criticise the Greens for voting against the Rudd government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme but they sound rather like Greens complaining correctly that voters wildly overestimate the significance of […]
Have Australians become more conservative?
Interesting debate at John Quiggin on whether the election revealed a rightward shift by Australian voters. Left-inclined posters keen to deny this, but the evidence seems irrefutable. Consider two key issues: immigration and greenhouse policy. Conservatives have long been anxious about the decline of Anglo-Australia particularly since the 1970s when non-Anglo immigrants became assertive and […]
Immigration, race and popular environmentalism
The curious fact about the recent population controversy is the absence of any historical context. Since the early 1970s immigration has been a theme of conservative campaigns in Australia, before then it was Labor that wrapped itself in the banner of White Australia. The conservative critique of immigration came direct from Britain where the Conservatives […]
Green bubbles
How are we to understand Labor’s loss of ground on environmental policy manifest in declining public support for its Emmissions Trading Scheme. Public opinion about environmental questions is complex. There is a broad sentiment in favour of wilderness preservation, contrary to some myths it doesn’t vary much by social background or educational level. This diffuse […]
Environmental and microeconomic reform
Tony Abbott has claimed to seek a middle ground on climate change opposing the government’s ETS whilst promising to somehow reduce greenhouse gas emissions whilst maintaining employment in carbon-intensive industries. The later commitment is incompatible with the previous one. But more broadly Abbott displays a remarkable faith in the power of governments to direct economic […]