“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”
Those are the most famous fighting words in modern history, uttered by Britain’s war-time Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.
They inspired a nation to ultimate victory, but these days if he were an Australian Prime Minister or Opposition Leader, he could be talking about the Gillard Government’s controversial carbon tax.
In our case, Opposition leader Tony Abbott and his troops are fighting in the fish markets, they are fighting in the coal mines and in the construction trenches; Julia Gillard is leading the defence in the shopping malls, she is fighting in the town hall forums and right there on our TV screens.
But so far according to the opinion polls, the Opposition has taken the high ground and the pro-carbon tax forces are fighting an uphill battle. Just like Winston, both sides have declared they will never surrender.
I’ll probably cop flak for comparing Britain’s darkest hour with the carbon tax debate, but the PM provided some inspiration for that herself during the Brisbane public forum on Wednesday night when she attributed another quote to Churchill.
Asked why she was now introducing a carbon tax when she had promised on the eve of the last election, “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,” she replied: “I think it was Winston Churchill who said, ‘When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do?”
Oops. She has recently admitted that the changing facts in this instance were represented by Bob Brown and the Greens pushing for a carbon tax.
But it wasn’t Churchill who said that in the first place. It was famous British economist John Maynard Keynes and it was used more recently by a prominent Australian scientist Dr David Evans to explain why he had changed his mind on the issue of climate change.
Dr Evans was a former global warming true believer who worked on computer carbon modelling for the Australian Greenhouse Office until he eventually came to the conclusion there was no evidence in the upper atmosphere to support the theory of man-made climate change.
But quotes don’t win or lose a war and we are all in for a continuing verbal assault until the matter is eventually resolved by an election. Hopefully.
Meanwhile, journalists who were told by Ms Gillard to “stop writing crap” about the proposed carbon tax have found an unlikely ally in Federal Member for Flynn, Ken O’Dowd.
“If she wants the media to stop writing crap, maybe she should stop speaking it,” O’Dowd said. He has repeatedly referred to his electorate as “ground zero” in terms of likely impacts from the carbon tax.
Ms Gillard was asked about how the media had handled the debate over the government’s planned tax during her address to the National Press Club last week.
“I think we will have a long debate about media ethics in this country but if I could put it as clearly as I can, I would say to you, ‘Don’t write crap. Can’t be that hard’,” she said.
But O’Dowd said yesterday that apparently any reporting which did not support the carbon tax was regarded as “crap” by Ms Gillard even though all major opinion polls continued to show a big majority of Australians were opposed to it.
“It explains why the government plans to spend $12 million of taxpayers’ money on an advertising campaign in a desperate attempt to try to sell their dodgy Greens – Labor carbon dioxide tax,” O’Dowd said.
Another $13 million would be spent on “propaganda mail-outs” and pro-carbon tax websites.
“People aren’t stupid, they know this new tax will increase their cost of living, threaten their jobs, their small businesses and our major mining and manufacturing industries.
“They know it will not change the world climate while our major competitors do not have a carbon tax.
“As Australia emits just 1.4 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, how can reducing that by 5 per cent, 20 per cent or even 100 per cent change anything?” he asked.
It’s a question which many ordinary Australians would like answered, faced with the confusing prospect of a government hell-bent on a scheme which will apparently taketh with one hand, giveth with the other while many receiveth nought and the climate changeth regardless.
Or as O’Dowd added: All pain for no gain.
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