Carbon tax repeal: UK politician Lord Deben attacks Tony Abbott's 'reckless' plan to scrap carbon tax

Updated

One of the UK's leading Tory politicians has attacked Tony Abbott's plan to scrap the carbon tax, accusing the Prime Minister of "recklessly endangering" the future of the world.

The legislation to abolish the tax passed the House of Representatives last month and is expected to pass the Senate this week thanks to the support of the Palmer United Party.

Among the howls of protest from Labor and the Greens has been the unlikely voice of Lord Deben, who remains Britain's longest serving environment minister.

Lord Deben, a former head of the Conservative Party who served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, is now the head of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

He has issued a statement saying the Abbott Government "appears to be more concerned with advancing its own short-term political interests" than dealing with global warming.

"Australia is changing Britain's climate as we are changing yours. It is not just a national matter. We are all in this together and Mr Abbott is recklessly endangering our future, as he is Australia's," the statement said.

Lord Deben, formerly John Selwyn Gummer, has told Lateline the Abbott Government is sending Australia backwards.

We all know [Tony Abbott] and his Government do not take this seriously, where the rest of the world, 80 per cent plus of emitters, are taking it so seriously that we find it very upsetting that Australia should be slapping us in the face and saying we don't care about the climate. Lord Deben

"In Britain we have an independent body which is apart from party politics which sets the targets, sets the budget, and independently assesses how well the government has done," he said.

"Mr Abbott has got rid of his independent group, he won't have independent assessment, nobody outside his party thinks that his policy is going to deliver and he will not listen to the rest of the world.

"That seems to me to be very sad because Australia is a great nation, an English-speaking nation that ought to be leading the world instead of going backwards."

Lord Deben says his criticism would not be as harsh if the Government planned to replace the carbon tax with a policy that would achieve similar results.

Australia 'slapping us in the face' on climate change

The Government says its $2.5 billion Direct Action plan will reduce emissions and allow Australia to reach its target of a 5 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020.

But Lord Deben - whose government has a binding target to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 - says that is a "miserable" target.

"A 5 per cent target by 2020 is out of kilter even if you choose the most favourable base that you like with the rest of the world," he said.

"If people outside and inside Australia believe that Mr Abbott took climate change seriously, was going to international conferences to try to play Australia's part in leading the world, that he actually thought this was important and not as is rumoured thinks it's all rubbish, then we would be much more sympathetic with the views that he's putting forward.

"But we all know he and his Government do not take this seriously, where the rest of the world, 80 per cent plus of emitters, are taking it so seriously that we find it very upsetting that Australia should be slapping us in the face and saying we don't care about the climate, you can get on with it, we are not doing our part."

The Palmer United Party backed the tax repeal after the Government agreed to Clive Palmer's demand that the future of the Clean Energy Finance Commission (CEFC) be considered separately.

Mr Palmer wants to keep the CEFC, the Climate Change Authority and the Renewable Energy Target, which provides incentives for investment in renewable energy sources.

The Government has also agreed to introduce laws to make sure power companies pass on savings from the repeal of the carbon tax to consumers, another of Mr Palmer's demands.

Topics: climate-change, environment, government-and-politics, federal-government, world-politics, environmental-impact, environmental-policy, australia, asia, england, united-kingdom

First posted