To change or not to change, that is the question.

I have been quiet on this blog for too long, and I think the reason is largely utter amazement at the goings on with the Liberal Party and the ultimate election of Tony Abbott as their new leader.

There will certainly now be a distinction between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party on many issues because under Tony Abbott's leadership the policy-shift will be to the extreme right - it will all be about distinction. He said in the hours after his appointment that the job of the oppostion is to oppose - "We will oppose." One commentator suggested that he might just forget that the real job of the Opposition is to offer the electorate a credible alternative for government.

I remember the carping about the Labor Party approach to the last election. Many, but not all, of their policies were close imitations of the policy of the then Liberal government, so much so that Kevin Rudd was sometimes described as "Me-too-Kevin"

So, the Liberal Party has opted for change, but they have done so in a context in which they are wanting to proclaim a no-change policy - Climate Change.

"No new taxes" is a golden rule for Liberal politicians, and at the suggestion that a "Cap and Trade" aproach to carbon pollution reduction was another name for a TAX, the whole party came out in unison, opposed to any such thing. In fact, Tony Abbott when a step further proclaiming that their policies would be able to reduce Carbon Pollution (if indeed that was necessary) without imposing any taxes or extra costs on people in particular and the economy in general.

Two little words will save the whole world - DIRECT ACTION. Now some of you will say that those two words imply change and I said the policy is about no change. Well, yes, you and I will have to change our ways, and some of them might cost us a bit here and there, but the government will not have to change - no direct action by them because that would involve TAXES.

So we have a proposal that the absolute laissez faire approach is what will save us. It is interesting because the Cap and Trade system was one predicated on the idea that market forces would anable the changes in behaviour to be achieved voluntarily.

The irony in it for me is that the Global Finacial Crisis hasn't much dented some people's belief in the capacity of the free market to get it right.

So, as the Copenhagen conference draws to a close over the next few days we wait with baited breath to see whether the concensus is for CHANGE or BUSINESS AS USUAL. The cynic in me is half expecting proclamations of words that we all want to hear followed by targets and action that reflect very much an attitude - I will if you will - very much like the Wild West gunfighters facing each other, guns at the ready, neither willing to lower their weapon first.