http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/ashley-wells/ Ashley is Hawker Britton’s practice director for the Federal Government portfolios of climate change, education, trade, industry, science and research. Ashley has more than 12 years experience working in public affairs, the Federal bureaucracy, Federal Parliament, for peak industry bodies and with industry. He has worked in the Federal Parliament as a senior policy and political adviser.  He has broad policy experience across several areas, having worked as a senior adviser to Hon Stephen Smith MP in the industry, infrastructure, industrial relations and education and training portfolios, and as foreign affairs adviser to Hon Kevin Rudd MP. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-chicken-littles-will-have-egg-on-their-faces/ The carbon debate at the moment is a bit like the story of Chicken Little. Just as Chicken Little declared that the sky was falling, we’re seeing a lot of people in the business community claiming that the introduction of a carbon price will spell disaster for Australian exports, jobs and industries. (We cheated here and went for the Hokey Pokey rather than Henny Penny. But the clip is worth a re-visit.) BHP Billiton and Xstrata want protection on coal exports; BlueScope Steel and OneSteel want steel manufacturing exempted from a carbon price; Woodside Petroleum want LNG exports to be exempted from a carbon price.  To top it off, we’ve had the Australian Workers Union declare its opposition if a single job is lost as a result of a carbon price. And the Australian Food and Grocery Council is now calling for exemptions and running the line that food prices will rise. You would be forgiven for thinking the Chicken is right. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Ashley Wells) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-chicken-littles-will-have-egg-on-their-faces/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-chicken-littles-will-have-egg-on-their-faces/#item5682 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:50:43 +0000 Ashley Wells | Author bios | The Punch