Yesterday afternoon, I was talking to UQ scientist Megan Evans at the Say Yes climate rally and she mentioned an interview she saw on YouTube from 2009 where Tony Abbott advocated a carbon tax. I was surprised, I'd never heard of that interview, why wasn't it widely known. Last night, she emailed me the link.

I watched the interview, it was 13 minutes long, pretty tedious, but a dynamite 60 second segment towards the end where Abbott spouts a few climate denial myths then seamlessly transitions into advocating a carbon tax. So I captured the YouTube video, edited it down to that crucial one minute and uploaded it to the SkepticalScience YouTube channel (which had been sitting empty until now). I then emailed it around to a few scientists.

Just got this email a few minutes ago from scientist Matthew England:

Dear colleagues:   Just a heads-up: the Tony Abbott carbon tax clip sent out by John Cook today is going to feature on ABC’s Q&A show tonight.  I sent it to Tony Jones 30 mins ago, and he called me to say it’s ideal for tonight’s show.  He is keen to be the first media outlet highlighting this clip, and I think this will maximise its impact as Q&A is widely watched by politicians and other “heavies”.  It’s also a feeder to a qn for the panel.  So if possible can you hold back on fwd’ing the clip to your media contacts for the next 4 hours or so?   Best regards, Matt

So somehow, I don't know how, that interview has slipped under the mainstream media radar for the last few months of the carbon tax debate and now it will drop like a bombshell on ABC Television (Q&A is a very popular show here in Australia). So not a bad start for the first SkS experiment on YouTube. :-)

Wooo Hoooo.

I'll be watching.

Also John. Make sure your firewall is running at full strength for the next few days. And maybe keep a link to the original YouTube video for reference.

Do you want to claim credit for this? Might be a good time for a special post. Perhaps focus on Abbott's language - Catastrophists etc?

I'm pretty sure Abbott has advocated a carbon tax on the ABC, too, but I can't remember the show or the date.

Incidentally, I have submitted the following question to tonight's Q&A (unlikely to be read on the show because they receive heaps of questions each week):

"Treasury modeling of the CPRS revealed Australia’s emissions target would be met with supposed “offsets” from overseas, while our domestic emissions would not decrease until 2035. Similarly, the Garnaut Review suggests “low-cost reductions” are possible by offsetting emissions in the land sector while continuing to burn fossil fuels. What will the Greens do to make sure Australia’s fossil fuel emissions are not merely hidden in the land sector or overseas?"

Very nicely done JC!

Just watched Q&A. I'm pretty sure Tony Jones was struggling to not smirk.

Lets see what the reaction in the Australian media is tomorrow.

Why not send a copy to Malcolm Turnbull?

I think we just scored a point in the political debate over the carbon tax. About time!

Excellent work, John.

Was even better - showed the clip and compared it to Gillard's backflip about "no carbon tax while I'm running govt". So it neutralises to some degree Abbott's line of attack that Gillard is backflipping.

All in all, a good day's work, I feel.

John to me this youtube stuff seems like an interesting idea. I would like to help out in the future with some videos perhaps. I'm not an expert but I have dabbled a bit in the past.

That's awesome John.  You should do a blog post highlighting the YouTube page, embed the video, and mention that it was used by ABC.  Maybe throw in a link to the "CO2 limits will harm the economy" rebuttal.

Robert, thanks for the offer. I would like to put more stuff on YouTube. I have no idea what at this point - but my general thinking atm is that SkS should be experimenting with all sorts of different communication methods. So am open to any creative, crazy ideas...

This from the ABC today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/07/3237632.htm

Note that they have edited the earlier part of John's version, removing the references to catastrophists etc. Probably ABC Legal getting involved. Would be good to get the uncut version out to a few sources.

SMH featuring video from Ten News:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/abbott-dogged-by-old-carbon-comment-20110607-1fprb.html

Brandis says it's okay for Abbott to change his mind:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8258267/brandis-defends-abbotts-switch-on-carbon

Very nice!  Blog post in the works, John? :-)

Still mulling. It's a bit political, I suppose I could emphasise the denier myths part to give it an SkS tie-in.

Hmm, maybe I could include all the Tony Abbott quotes - we have quite a few in the database.