John Howard - "Jury Still Out" On Climate/GHG Link - Later Retracts - "Misheard The Question"

[hatrack]

EDIT

His comments came as Prime Minister John Howard was forced to correct a statement he had made to Parliament during yesterday's question time, in which he had said that "the jury is still out" on the link between emissions and climate change.

In an unusual move, Mr Howard returned to the chamber to say that he had misheard the question. He said he thought that he had been asked about the drought rather than the link between climate change and carbon dioxide emissions.

The Prime Minister's embarrassing correction followed a bruising question time battle with Labor over climate change. Laying down critical markers for the election campaign, Labor leader Kevin Rudd said that a government of climate change sceptics could not be part of a comprehensive solution to the issue.

Mr Howard and the Government's new Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, countered that Labor was full of climate change "purists" and "fanatics", and was not serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions because it refused to enter debate on nuclear energy. Mr Macfarlane told The Age that he could not see a global emissions trading scheme being in place by 2012.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/minister-breaks-ranks-on-emissions/2007/02/06/1170524094655.html

[Reterr]

1. k&r.eom

[kenny blankenship]

2. Mishoward

verb, past tense: to pretend to have only misheard a previous statement or previous question, after realizing that one's initial reply was a dumbass thing to say.