Feb 22, 2008

Is Anderton Going To Vote Against Emissions Trading?

Jim Anderton's new found fundamentalism on free trade and industry subsidies - as expressed several times yesterday, including in the question time exchange below (that blew up in his face) was rather unfortunate given the growing interest in the Bill Lloyd case. But it may also come back to bite him when its comes to the Government's emissions trading policy. What is free allocation of credits if not a subsidy? The value of these free allocations across the economy will be worth far more than $200 million. What did Anderton say yesterday would result from a $200 million subsidy?

"that would devastate our international trade reputation."