FUNDING to clean up coal and help poor countries cope with climate change will be slashed if the opposition wins the federal election.
The Opposition released a hit list of programs it would pare back or axe entirely, including about $1.4 billion from a raft of green schemes.
Money to reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations would be cut by $200 million over four years.
Aid to poor countries to pay for better scientific information and adaptation to climate change would be reduced by $193 million over the next three years. This would have been part of the aid Australia promised under UN climate negotiations.
A fund set up to encourage individuals to reduce emissions under the ETS has been cut, saving $76 million. The ETS has been delayed.
A $30 million ad campaign to educate the community on climate change would be ditched.
A program to promote the development of greener cars has been reduced by $278 million - the Government plans to cut it by $200 million.
And the Opposition would can a $653 million boost to renewable energy, money leftover after the government shelved the ETS.
The Opposition has already said it would use that money to tackle climate change, but in a different way.
While the Opposition has taken the razor to the government's climate programs, it has an alternative climate policy which would cost at least $3.2 billion over four years.
That policy would pay farmers and others to store carbon in the soil and trees.
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COMMENT: In the same week Tony Abbott told the people of Australia not to believe
what he says, this ultra-conservative, right-wing, political madman has revealed more
of his political lunacy. If this political troglodyte ever becomes Prime Minister, the people
of Australia now know what to expect from him on climate change, help for poor countries,
an Australian Republic, abortion law reform and Australia's divorce laws. Tony Abbott is on
record as wanting to go back to the days before the Family Law Act 1975 when a partner in
a marriage had to prove assault, desertion or adultery (or one of a few other limited claims)
to get a divorce. Who could forget the days when private detectives climbed up ladders outside
people's bedrooms to snap a picture of a couple in bed to prove that one of them was committing
adultery. It was the most disgraceful and despicable way that a cheated wife (or husband) was
forced to prove their case for a divorce. Despite the breaches of privacy and the outrageous steps
which private detectives took to gather evidence for a divorce before 1975, this is exactly what
Tony Abbott wants to return to. He is a disgrace and will be rejected by every fair minded, decent
Australian. Senator Lionel Murphy, who championed Australia's "no-fault" system of divorce in 1975,
would be shaking in his grave to know that these laws, which have stood the test of time over 35 years,
would be ripped apart by an Abbott Liberal government.
