JUST less than a year after she was elected as Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard has announced a package of economic reforms linked to action against climate change. From next July, 500 of Australia’s biggest polluters will have to start paying a tax of A$23 ($24) a tonne on their own carbon emissions; three years later, a market-based emissions trading scheme will replace a fixed tax. Ms Gillard now faces a battle to sell her plan on an issue that has rent stormy political divisions in Australia for almost a decade.
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