A true reason for delaying the ETS legislation

Comments on Dennis Shanahan “Time to hit the brakes on ETS”, 18/07/2009, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25944030-17301,00.html

It should not matter whether Australia passes the ETS bill or not before Copenhagen, give both the flexibility of the varying voluntary targets of that bill and the goodwill shown by other countries including the US and China so far. So Rudd and Wong do not have a strong rationale for Australia having to pass that bill before then. It has a strong enough mandate to go to Copenhagen and represent Australia in the best possible terms to achieve a good international agreement.

There is a strong reason for delaying that legislation, that is, to make the best possible policy among all options available with the least costs for any given targets, like analyzing the Frontier Economics modeling. So it makes sense for the government to hit the brakes on ETS now.

Rudd and Wong should be courageous enough to realize this and not to return the bill to the parliament before Copenhagen.