This was published 11 years ago
Canberra knows cost of carbon and value of saying nothing
By David Wroe
IF CARBON could be removed from the atmosphere as efficiently as it has been scrubbed from the latest government carbon tax advertisements, our problems would be solved.
The federal government was under fire from all sides of politics yesterday after kicking off its advertising blitz spruiking the carbon tax ''household assistance package'' without a mention of carbon, climate change or clean energy.
"We need to make it clear to people why we are doing this" ... John Connor, Climate Institute chief executive officer.Credit: Brendan Esposito
The television ads - part of a $36.1 million campaign to explain the assistance package, the first payments of which start tomorrow - premiered on Sunday night. Radio and newspaper ads will follow. As previously reported by the Herald, market research for the government has found that the word ''carbon'' is a turn-off for voters.
Instead, the ads tell viewers that the lump-sum payments are ''the first part of the Australian government's household assistance package''. The ads do not explain what the assistance is for.
A spokeswoman for the Families and Community Services Minister, Jenny Macklin, said the ads were part of the government's ''overall information package on the introduction of a price on carbon''. Asked why they made no mention of carbon or climate change, she said: ''Because it is about the extra money appearing in people's accounts.''
The chief executive of the Climate Institute, John Connor, said the government needed to boost its efforts to explain why a price on carbon is necessary. ''We need to make it clear to people why we are doing this and the importance of reducing carbon and developing clean energy,'' he said.
''If anyone thinks that a defensive strategy from either party on this issue - saying, 'Trust me, I'll look after you with extra money' - is going to work, they're wrong.''
He said he had told the government of his concerns and had been assured that it was not backing away from the fight over the carbon tax, which the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, has vowed to scrap if he wins government.
The opposition's climate spokesman, Greg Hunt, said the government had a duty to explain to people precisely what it was doing and why.
''There's no mention of the carbon tax in the carbon tax ads; there's no mention of electricity prices in the carbon tax ads; there's no mention of gas prices in the carbon tax ads,'' he said.
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