Indulgent Greens miss point of White Paper
19 December 2008
AWU National Secretary tells readers of the ABC's Opinion Page that while it is unusual for the Australian Workers' Union to want to build co-operative relationships with the Coalition he is prepared to meet Malcolm Turnbull and his team at any time to find a way to build a consensus on the White Paper.
" I do not want the Government or the Coalition to end up beholden to the Greens in Senate horse-trading over this important legislation," Paul Howes wrote for the ABC website.
" There may be issues, at the margin, which further consideration can assist in settling or clarifying. I want to discuss this with the Coalition to make sure we get the best possible outcome. But I believe it is vital that they endorse the package in principle as soon as possible.
" It will help maximise Australia's chances to extract the best possible deal at Copenhagen and beyond in the limited time we have available. It will also serve to build industry global sectoral agreements where we are seeing progress, albeit too slowly."
Read the complete opinion piece
Read some earlier opinion pieces by Paul Howes on this topic
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Bankrupt advice on emissions
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Standing stronger together for Gladstone
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Give workers a voice in climate change solutions
National Secretary: Paul Howes