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carbon tax backlash in Oz
Posted by **Hippie J** on Sep 6, 2013 at 6:38:15 PM:
Australian gov't faces carbon tax backlash at poll
SYDNEY (AP) — The ruling Labor Party's probable collapse in Australia's next election is largely the consequence of its qualified success in the last one three years ago. To form the coalition she needed to stay in power, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard reneged on a promise and agreed to place a carbon tax on major polluters.
On Saturday, the bill for that bargain comes due. Voters have never stopped hating the tax and its effect on their electric bills. Longtime Labor Party supporters — even people who have helped cut pollution by installing solar panels at home — have flocked to the opposition.
"Whoever gets rid of it will get my vote," said Mark Keene, a 54-year-old maintenance worker from Sydney who, for the first time in his life, won't be voting for Labor.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has declared the election a "referendum on the carbon tax" — a sure sign of confidence that most voters remain staunchly against it, with many believing that companies forced to pay the tax are simply passing the cost onto consumers.
Its unpopularity has already produced the downfall of Gillard, who lost her job to Kevin Rudd in a June vote of party lawmakers desperate to avoid a crushing election loss that could send them into the political wilderness for a decade. But Labor candidates for Parliament continue to trail badly in opinion polls.
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Last updated on Sep 6, 2013