Australian Political Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has today stunned observers by reversing his position on a carbon tax – ruling out any future reinstatement of a carbon tax.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald;

“We will not have a carbon tax, the Australian people have spoken and Labor is not going to go back to that,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-says-labor-wants-to-tackle-carbon-pollution-but-rules-out-return-of-carbon-tax-20141011-114nmp.html

Despite turning his back on a carbon tax, the Labor Opposition Leader continues to back the introduction of a “market based mechanism” for tackling “carbon pollution”.

One of the core platforms of the current Abbott government, which helped propel him to electoral victory last year, was the promised abolition of the deeply unpopular carbon tax.

Until recently, Labor advocated reinstating a carbon tax, pending the negotiation of a market based pricing mechanism, but they now appear to be backing away from carbon pricing, however tentatively – possibly due to the deep unpopularity of the carbon tax, and to internal pressure from their union supporters, some of whom are concerned about the impact of carbon pricing on jobs and pay.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/08/aussie-renewable-target-everyone-gets-an-exemption/

Abbott’s Liberal National Coalition government, and Coalition state governments, have been keen to keep voters focussed on how much carbon pricing cost them in their daily lives, by passing well publicised cost reductions back to consumers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-21/public-transport-fares-to-get-cheaper-in-queensland/5758504

h/t to Eric Worrall

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