Palmer United Party grand exalted leader Clive Palmer will be holding a press conference in just over an hour to announce his party’s official position on the Abbott Government‘s planned repeal of the Carbon Tax Legislation.
Normally this would be reasonably easy to ignore and let get lost in the news cycle, but it’s suddenly come to light that former US Vice President and world renowned Climate Change activist Al Gore will also be present at the press conference.
We have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what this means, but now colour us intrigued.
The Press Conference is scheduled to begin at 5:30pm this evening.
More to come.
UPDATE: Well that was…weird.
Clive continues to make Canberra more interesting than it actually is and this just might be his strangest curveball yet. Palmer has announced that his Palmer United Party will vote in the senate to abolish the carbon tax (as expected), outlining a raft of substitute policies and recommendations, all the while flanked by Al Gore, a man whose advice and passion for conservation Palmer says helped “enable me to help reconsider important issues facing Australians and the rest of the world”.
Instead of the carbon tax, Palmers suggests an amendment to ensure that all energy producers are required by law to pass on energy savings to consumers. Further, he says he will vote against the abolition of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, continue to support the Renewable Energy Target and also strive to establish an emissions trading scheme.
“This scheme would only become effective once Australia’s main trading partners also take action to establish such a scheme,” Palmer said. “If this amendment is supported and passed by the government, the world will know that once they act, they can be sure that Australia will respond in like terms.”
And after a short address by Mr. Gore (“No nation has greater renewable energy resources and a greater capacity to develop alternative sources of energy and contribute to a solution for the climate crisis,” he notes) the press conference is over. The two are now off to dinner, apparently.
Photo: Joe Raedle via Getty Images.
