The Prime Minister has previously been criticised for not standing for anything, but now she and her government are hitched to the carbon price. When we consider the advice of strategy masters Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, Labor’s poor polling has a potential upside: it can unite the party, instil discipline, and administer a good dose of the fighting spirit. According to seasoned political commentator Mungo MacCallum, Tony Abbott is winning the carbon price debate and “will continue to do so unless and until Gillard and her Climate Change Minister Greg Combet… get off their arses and take off the gloves”. The upsurge in support for the Coalition would indicate that his arguments are gaining traction. Abbott is aggressively arguing that the Government’s carbon price will increase electricity bills and the cost of living. Though the last statistic offers Labor some solace, Opposition leader Tony Abbott is on the warpath. Public support for immediate action on climate change is at 47 per cent, and 54 per cent support a carbon price that compensates low and medium income households. Essential Research polling shows that 38 per cent of those polled support a carbon price being introduced from July 2012. The carbon price has not yet achieved majority support in public polling. Labor has work to do to gain public support for its key climate change initiative. If there has been a time for Labor to unite and fight, it is now. As The Australian’s Paul Kelly notes, Gillard “has no viable option but to press ahead with her carbon price policy… to retreat would repeat the mistake that ruined Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership”. When it comes to the carbon pricing agenda, PM Gillard and her Labor Government are fighting on death ground - the terrain that the military strategist Sun Tzu described more than 2,000 years ago in The Art of War. The latest polling comes just one week after Newspoll showed Labor’s primary vote at an historic low of 30 per cent. Both Nielsen and Essential polls show that Labor’s primary vote is down, so too is PM Gillard’s approval rating - the lowest since taking the leadership. Polling released yesterday confirms that the Gillard Government has taken a hit since launching its push for a national carbon price. If an election were held now the Labor party would be swept from office.
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