Rudd's Speech to the Lowy Institute

In his speech to the Lowy Institute on Friday the Prime Minister lashed out at climate change skeptics but lumped them together with those who agree on the natural science but disagree on the policy response to climate change:

"The opponents of action on climate change fall into one of three categories.
· First, the climate science deniers.
· Second, those that pay lip service to the science and the need to act on climate change but oppose every practicable mechanism being proposed to bring about that action.
· Third, those in each country that believe their country should wait for others to act first. "

The second of these is open to interpretation, but would it include people who oppose emissions trading schemes in general and favor other action? Rudd followed up with:

"The second group of do-nothing climate change skeptics are those who purport to accept the scientific consensus, but in the next breath are unwilling to support any of the practicable plans of action that would actually do something about climate change. This group plays lip service to the climate change science but when push comes to shove refuse to support climate change action. In Australia, these naysayers have successfully blocked the development of an emissions trading scheme for more than a decade."

and:

"The logic of these skeptics belongs in a casino, not a science lab, and not in the ranks of any responsible government. "

Of course, Spash is attacking the ETS from the viewpoint of heterodox not conservative economics and most of Rudd's attack was very specifically against conservatives.