Malcolm Turnbull will never have a credible climate change policy

Waleed Aly - not bothered about getting
breathless Turnbull Government's
"whiplash-like" climate changes.

To be honest, I can't really be bothered getting breathless about what the Coalition did on climate change this week. Sure, it should be remarkable that members of the Turnbull government variously said they would consider an "emissions intensity scheme", that such a scheme was a "stupid" idea, and then ultimately that it wouldn't be considered at all. In a saner world, this would inflict some kind of whiplash. But in this world, it just seems predictable. Probably the least predictable aspect was that the Turnbull government even suggested it might be open to some version of carbon pricing in the first place.

Because we've known for years now – at least seven of them – that the Coalition can never offer a policy like that. Not even if its leader wants to. Not even when this would unite environmentalist and business groups (as it presently does). And not even when the most obvious, low-cost policy is the one that most closely matches the Liberal Party's ideological convictions: market-based responses. Indeed, the greatest hallmark of the Coalition's baked-in streak of climate denialism is the extent to which it will contort itself not to have a credible policy.

Read what Waleed Aly has to say in today’s Melbourne Age - “Malcolm Turnbull will never have a credible climate change policy.”