Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that Australia will set a carbon price from July 1, 2012, as an interim measure until a full emissions trading scheme can be introduced three to five years later. No decision had yet been made on what the price would be, or how much industry and households would be compensated for the new costs.

“I do not believe that Australia needs to lead the world on climate change, but I also don’t believe that we can afford to be left behind.,” she said, apparently unaware that carbon trading has been going on for almost a decade and that most countries which are economically similar to Australia, including New Zealand and 25 European countries, already have carbon trading.