Greeny News

"It 's say good for greenies to pass this carbon tax needs, but we can' t \ all hug trees for a living," said Brett Withers, who has worked as an industrial cleaning contractor in the steel mill, for 20 years. "It might 'be s., when the control is destroyed in this area, you \ ..' just the straw that the camel \ break is not only the steel industry -. It 's the butcher, the baker and the barber Everyone will suffer'.

Withers 'comments show an angry backlash against the threat of government plans to introduce a carbon tax. Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard plans, the amount of tax to be levied to announce about the pollution on Sunday 10 July.

The levy was proposed by Gillard, who needed support from Greens in a hung parliament. But the plan has divided Australia like no other issue of recent years.

An opinion poll on Tuesday 28 June showed Gillard 's disapproval rating at 62%. Another poll suggested almost one in four Australians for their vote so that their government the most unpopular in 40 years.

Cities such as Wollongong have led the assault, such as blue-collar voters - who made good on the back of the mining boom - the Prime Minister's desert in droves.

Australia is the world 's largest producer of iron ore bound and coal, much of it in China' s hungry construction industry. As commodity prices have skyrocketed, so have profits.

Australia's commodity export earnings are expected to rise 18% to a record $270bn (?180bn) in the next year. It is an industry that sustains a lot of livelihoods, and a lot of voters.

The conservative opposition - led by climate sceptic, Tony Abbott, who once described human-induced climate change as "crap" - has capitalised on the uncertainty and on Gillard's flip-flop.

Rightwing shock jocks have also rammed home the anti-tax message, arguing that whatever Australia does will make little difference to the world's climate.

From his inner city veggie patch stocked with lettuce, beetroot and cabbage, Sydney resident Greg Bearup despairs at the government's handling of the carbon tax debate. "I just can't see how we went from 60-70% support for action on climate change to a position where Gillard looks like she could lose her job over it," he said. "It's unbelievable it could have been handled so badly."