“Barring any more sudden Ricky Muir-like surprises, it looks as if the Senate will repeal the carbon tax,” begins the leader column in this week’s Spectator Australia. “So allow us a little gloating.”
In the event, the Australian Senate failed to do any such thing: legislation repealing the carbon tax was rejected by 37 votes to 35, after the minor Palmer United Party switched sides and voted with the opposition. Its leader, Clive Palmer, accused the Abbott government of failing to deliver on a promise to force power companies to pass savings from the tax’s abolition back to consumers, adding: “I think you’d call it double crossing people.”
All this is obviously embarrassing for the Australian government – but not, perhaps, as embarrassing as it is for the Australian Spectator. Here’s this week’s cover:
The magazine will, I’m sure, allow us a little gloating.