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Are the Greens ‘Neither Left nor Right but Out in Front’? What the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Debate Reveals About Ideological Divisions Between Labor and the Greens
Author(s) -
Edwards Lindy
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12304
Subject(s) - ideology , schema (genetic algorithms) , political economy , political science , economics , law , politics , computer science , machine learning
In 2009, the Rudd Labor Government proposed a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) but was unable to secure support from the Australian Greens. This paper uses this case study to examine ideological divisions that may hamper policy making within Australia's left in the future. It finds the Greens saw the issue through a classic left schema that constructed the environmental crisis as having been created by the powerful exploiting the vulnerable. In contrast, Labor saw the issue through a liberal schema that constructed the crisis as a product of a morally neutral market failure. These different framings led to very different views on the appropriateness of the polluting industries’ compensation package. It concludes that co‐operation between the parties in the future is likely to centre on issues they both view through the left schema.