Coalition's climate policy announced after July 2 election

 The Coalition is deferring until after the election
 its internal reckoning over climate policy.

For years Greg Hunt has been suggesting different things to different people about his climate policy. This week he was almost caught out.

Most people who understand how it works – environmentalists, business leaders, analysts – know the Coalition’s Direct Action policy cannot meet Australia’s promised long-term greenhouse gas reductions exactly as it stands. For years Hunt has reassured them – don’t worry, the framework is there.

The so-called safeguards mechanism within the policy (which sets emissions “baselines”, or limits, for big polluters) can be tightened so it becomes a type of emissions trading scheme. The baselines can be gradually reduced and then companies that can’t meet them forced to buy pollution permits. But Hunt is keeping quiet about that, playing a long game, waiting for the cabinet, and his party, to catch up with the scientific and economic realities of climate change, biding his time until a scheduled “review” next year.

Read The Guardian story - “Greg Hunt plays the long game on his glaringly obvious emissions trading scheme.”