CANBERRA, Australia, June 24 (UPI) -- Julia Gillard, Australia's new prime minister, says she believes in climate change and a "price" on carbon.
The same issues, analysts say, led to the demise of her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, who was bounced by the Labor Party on Thursday.
Rudd, who had referred to climate change as the greatest moral challenge, had transformed the issue into a defining pledge in his 2007 platform. His first act as leader of the country was to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
But voters were perplexed by Rudd's about-face when, in April, he shelved his emissions trading scheme until 2013 or later. The ETS was aimed at cutting Australia's emissions by at least 5 percent from 2000 levels by 2020.
Australia surpasses the United States as the world's biggest per capita carbon emitter.
Rudd's credibility dropped even further when he announced last month his proposal for a "resources super-profits" tax that would tax mining profits at 40 percent after reaching a certain level, beginning in 2012.
"There is no doubt the controversy over the 'super-profits' mining tax was what drove the final nail into Rudd's political coffin," James Wilson, a mining analyst at DJ Carmichael & Co. told The Telegraph newspaper.
"It's a lesson the Labor Party appears to have learned, that it must engage with the mining industry over this tax."
In her acceptance speech, the 48-year-old Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, called attention to the climate change and mining tax issues but indicated she wouldn't be hastily changing policy.
"It's my intention to lead a government that does more to harness the wind and the sun and the new emerging technologies," she said. "I will do this because I believe in climate change."
She said she was disappointed, along with "millions of Australians, that we do not have a price on carbon," stressing that "in the future we will need one."
As for the super tax, Gillard said the government would suspend its ad campaign aimed at promoting the tax. Mining giant BHP Biliton and the Minerals Council of Australia in turn followed her calls to withdraw their ads opposing it.
Mitchell Hooke, chief executive of the Minerals Council, said the organization did so in expectation of "meaningful and constructive" consultations with the government.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Gillard said the details of the mining tax are open for negotiation.
"I think today we've established some more goodwill. I think we've already established that the mining industry can pay more tax," she said.
She also indicated she would revive the government's climate change policy.
