In Australia, much like in the United States, the passage of a Climate Change Bill has been contentious. Our centre-left Labor government is trying to pass an emissions trading scheme before Copenhagen, but they have been stalled at every possible opportunity by obstructionists from the Opposition conservatives (the liberal-nations, as well as powerful interests, especially from the Coal industry.

The Labor government has itself already watered down the bill and given very generous concessions to Industry, including temporary free permits to the Coal Industry to help in the transition - much to the anger of green groups and minor green parties.

And yet, the obstructionism continues. Even this very weak, watered down bill has been stalled in the Australian Senate primarily by conservatives.

Tonight, Kevin Rudd came out swinging. In an address to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank on US-Australian relations, Kevin Rudd delivered a stinging critique of climate change skeptics, deniers, and other interests - in both Australia and the United States.

A full transcript of the speech can be found here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/...

But in the meantime, here's some highlights:

President Obama in the United States is also working hard so that he can take strong commitments to Copenhagen. And let us never forget that in the US, as in Australia, under both our respective previous governments, zero action was taken on bringing in cap and trade schemes meaning that the governments that replaced them began with a zero start. Other countries are striving to build domestic political momentum in their own countries to take strong commitments into the global deal. The challenge we face, and others around the world face, is to build momentum and overcome domestic political constraints. The truth is this is hard, because the climate change skeptics, the climate change deniers, the opponents of climate change action are active in every country. They are a minority. They are powerful. And invariably they are driven by vested interests. Powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia, powerful enough to so far slow down the passage of legislation through the US Congress. And ultimately – by limiting the ambition of national climate change commitments – they are powerful enough to threaten a deal on global climate change both in Copenhagen and beyond.

The Australian government, much like the United States, has been lobbied furiously by the coal industry, the oil and gas industry, the agriculture industry, and others. They have also had to to put up with constant attacks from both the left, who are already outraged at how weak the bill has become, an the right-wing Liberal-National Party coalition, who are full of climate change deniers and procratinators, and who were largely responsible in the previous government for not signing the Kyoto Protocol.

Concern is being whipped up by the coal industry in Australia that the passage of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (aka Emissions Trading Scheme) will cause widespread job losses - despite evidence to the contrary. A group calling itself the Australian Coal Alliance has taken out TV, newspaper and radio ads featuring emotional coal industry workers who feel their jobs are under threat if the scheme passes.

Kevin Rudd calls them out devastatingly:

The opponents of action on climate change fall into one of three categories.

· First, the climate science deniers.

· Second, those that pay lip service to the science and the need to act on climate change but oppose every practicable mechanism being proposed to bring about that action.

· Third, those in each country that believe their country should wait for others to act first. Together, these groups, alive in every major country including Australia, constitute a powerful global force for inaction, and they are particularly entrenched in a range of conservative parties around the world. As we approach Copenhagen, these three groups of climate skeptics are quite literally holding the world to ransom.

· Provoking fear campaigns in every country they can.

· Blocking or delaying domestic legislation in every country they can.

· With the objective of slowing and if possible destroying the momentum towards a global deal on climate change. As we approach the Copenhagen conference these groups of climate change deniers face a moment of truth, and the truth is this: we will need to work much harder to reach an agreement in Copenhagen because these advocates of inaction are holding back domestic commitments, and are in turn holding back global commitments on climate change. It is time to be totally blunt about the agenda of the climate change skeptics in all their colours – some more sophisticated than others. It is to destroy the CPRS at home, and it is to destroy agreed global action on climate change abroad, and our children’s fate – and our grandchildren’s fate – will lie entirely with them. It’s time to remove any polite veneer from this debate. The stakes are that high.

And if that wasn't good enough for you, check this out:

The first category of those opposed to action is the vocal group of conservatives who do not accept the scientific consensus. This group believes the science is inconclusive and does not provide an evidentiary basis for anthropogenic climate change. In Australia, before the 2007 election, this group was thought to be relatively small. There appeared – for a time – to be bipartisan consensus on the need for action on climate change. In recent times, this bipartisan support has frayed. As one Liberal(conservative) Member of Parliament said to Phil Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald last year:

"[at the last election we supported an ETS because] we were staring at an electoral abyss. We had to pretend we cared."

(SMH, 28 JULY 2008) ...... Climate sceptics are also a powerful political lobby in the United States. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steel said on 6 March 2009:

"We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process." House Minority Leader John Boehner said on April 19 2009:

"The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide." Republican Congressman John Shimkus said on 25 March 2009:

"If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere?" The legion of climate change skeptics are active across the world, and they happily play with our children’s future. The clock is ticking for the planet, but the climate change skeptics simply do not care. The vested interests at work are simply too great. ..... <bold>Attempts by politicians in this country and others to present what is an overwhelming global scientific consensus as little more than an unfolding debate, with two sides evenly represented in a legitimate scientific argument, are nothing short of intellectually dishonest. They are a political attempt to subvert what is now a longstanding scientific consensus, an attempt to twist the agreed science in the direction of a predetermined political agenda to kill climate change action. It reminds me of the efforts of the smoking lobby decades ago as they tried for years to politically subvert by so-called scientific means that there was any link between smoking and lung cancer. Put more simply: these climate change sceptics around the world would be laughable if they were not so politically powerful – particularly in the ranks of conservative parties.

Pretty strong stuff? Oh hang on, there's more:

The second group of do-nothing climate change skeptics are those who purport to accept the scientific consensus, but in the next breath are unwilling to support any of the practicable plans of action that would actually do something about climate change. This group plays lip service to the climate change science but when push comes to shove refuse to support climate change action. In Australia, these naysayers have successfully blocked the development of an emissions trading scheme for more than a decade. ....... Today, after so many reports, reviews, consultations, not to mention the small matter of an election - the overwhelming need for Australia to tackle the great challenge of our generation is being frustrated by the do-nothing climate change skeptics.

And my personal favourite part:

A third argument from those who quibble with the design of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is that the international design aspects of the scheme are flawed. Lord Christopher Monckton - a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher - was quoted this week in the Australian press by Janet Albrechtsen. Lord Monckton describes the potential Copenhagen agreement as a plan to set up a transnational "government" on a scale the world has never before seen. Enter the "world government" conspiracy theorists. Lord Monckton also publicly warned Americans that "in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy and your prosperity away forever." Janet Albrechtsen, in her understated neo-conservative way, refers to the potential Copenhagen agreement as a UN "power grab". This gaggle of world government conspiracy theorists are so far out there on the far right, that they rub up next to the global anarchists of the far left. ....

The climate change deniers now form the comfortable bedfellows of the global conspiracy theorists – in total bald-faced denial of global scientific, economic and environmental reality. These arguments – thinly veiled attempts to create a new climate change global conspiracy theory – are now being used in Australia. Like the arguments from climate change deniers, these arguments have zero basis in evidence.

It's been this sort of language that's been missing from the debate - strong, unequivocal language that delay is no longer an option. No wonder recent polls have showed the public becoming more skeptical of climate change. We need a big co-ordinated pushback, now.

Now that the ground has been set in my country, perhaps it's time for Barack Obama and progressively minded democrats to come out and do the same.