It’s time for another Rudd apology – to everyone maligned for challenging the ETS

You deserve an apology. In fact we are all owed an apology from Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong.

For two years, they have led a political crusade to impose a debilitating tax on Australia’s industry and way of life in support of urgent action on climate change. Despite the devastating cost (both financial and social) of this new policy we were reminded ad nauseam that ‘the cost of inaction was greater than the cost of action’.

Mr Rudd thundered from his pulpit that ‘this is the greatest moral challenge of our time’ and that ‘…delay is deferring what we know we must do; delay will simply increase the costs’.

Those who support immediate action on climate change have been misled and deceived. You are owed an apology.

For those of us who have been openly sceptical of the fanciful claims made by the climate change extremists, or who have advocated waiting for a global agreement before committing Australia to any particular climate change path, we too are owed an apology.

Mr Rudd and Senator Wong have condemned those who dared question her oracle-like wisdom on this subject in the most vitriolic of terms. On one occasion I was accused by Senator Wong as ‘making the most negligent contribution to political debate since the Howard Government took Australia to war in Iraq’ for asking that cool heads be used to determine Australia’s global warming policy.

The term ‘denier’, with all its historical connotations, was levelled at those who dared question the climate change orthodoxy. A methodology I find utterly reprehensible.

I could go on and on but it is unnecessary for the purposes of this comment.

Mr Rudd’s about-face on the ETS shows we cannot accept what he says at face value. It calls into question his character and the faith the Australian people can place in his ‘focus group manicured’ words.

All Australians, no matter what your thoughts on the cause of climate change, are owed an apology. Either for being let down by this Government or for having your morality impugned for daring to question the probity of Labor’s approach.

An apology shouldn’t be too hard given Mr Rudd’s experience in this area. After all, misleading the Australian people is a bigger deal than throwing a tantrum over a sandwich on a plane.

Of course, any apology might not mean very much given his lack of credibility, but Mr Rudd has been big on symbolic gestures so another one surely couldn’t hurt that much, could it?

Cory Bernardi is a South Australian Liberal senator. His columns and essays are available at his website.