And so the sins of the forefathers shall be visited upon the sons, or so it must feel like to Bill Shorten as he wrestles with the demons of Kevin Rudd’s ‘greatest moral challenge’ and Julia Gillard’s shameful broken promise. A more apt phrase, however, would probably be ‘damned if you do, Bill, and damned if you don’t.’

On the one hand, if the Labor leader supports the Abbott government’s repeal of the carbon tax and essentially ditches the mantra of pricing carbon, many true believers will fret and wail that the party does not stand for anything. Meanwhile, the Greens — those poisonous parasites that leeched on the Gillard government — will embrace any climate enthusiasts who lament that Labor has abandoned the faith.

On the other hand, Labor can’t be competitive politically unless the leader separates himself from the albatross of the carbon-pricing wing of the party. There simply aren’t enough global-warming alarmists outside a Q&A studio to win an electoral majority. If Labor stays loyal to this crowd, Middle Australia won’t be impressed.

Bear in mind that the last and only time voters expressed any real interest in pricing carbon was in the year or so leading up to the 2007 election: Al Gore had produced An Inconvenient Truth; the British government had released the Stern Report; Australia was in the midst of the longest and worst drought in living memory; and even Rupert Murdoch was ‘giving the planet the benefit of the doubt.’

But the (political) climate changed. In December 2009, Tony Abbott challenged the media consensus to seize leadership of the opposition on an anti-carbon pricing platform. A fortnight later in Copenhagen, any global deal on climate change descended into a ‘ratf—king’ farce, to paraphrase our PM of the day. Ever since, public support for a carbon price has remained in the minority.

Mr Shorten faces a situation that is an odd mirror image of that which bamboozled Brendan Nelson back in the heady climate days of 2008. With conservatives opposed to a unilateral emissions trading scheme, but with Malcolm Turnbull and many Liberal frontbenchers backing the Garnaut Report, Dr Nelson found himself tangled in a maze of obfuscation, vacillation and weasel words. The public was completely flummoxed about where the Coalition stood: was it for an ETS or against? Would it commence in 2011 or 2012? The danger for Mr Shorten is that he will similarly attempt a convoluted, arcane form of words and positions — we oppose the carbon tax, but we support carbon pricing — that will satisfy virtually no one, in or outside of his party.

So our advice to Bill is clear: the only way Labor can be competitive at the next election is to assume that the Greens will always direct their preferences to the ALP and at the same time persuade the suburban swing voters and ‘Howard battlers’ that you will sacrifice the hard Left on the altar of expediency. Failing that, you might have to change your nickname from ‘Electricity Bill’ to ‘Bill Short-term.’ Repent, Bill. And salvation may well be yours.

The spectre of anti-Semitism

‘Massive support post Bondi — politicians, Ukrainian, Indian, Muslim, Lebanese, Italian, Christian leaders, Sydney Alliance,’ tweeted Vic Alhadeff of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies. Sydney-siders, and indeed all Australians, can perhaps heave a gentle sigh of relief as we cross our fingers behind our collective backs and hope that the hideous assault by a group of thugs upon a family of Jews is a tragic one-off.

Alas, history warns us that this is a forlorn hope. Among the curse of racially motivated hate-crimes, the demonising of Jews is in an evil class of its own. Throughout the Arab world, often at the behest of the authorities and the educators, youngsters are taught to hate Jews with a sick passion. Throughout Europe, anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise, often within the confines of well-educated environments.

Anti-Semitism comes in many shades, including within our own shores a sinister dark green. There are those who camouflage their loathing of Jews behind the façade of the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, targeting the likes of chocolate shops. Within our universities, moreover, we’ve recently seen goose-stepping student councillors mocking a Jewish candidate. It would be a grave mistake if the racist component of the bloody Bondi attack is not clearly labelled for what it is. Those responsible must be identified and not hidden behind the convenient cloak of ‘youth’. More importantly, our political leaders should be far more vocal in condemning any and all such attacks on Jews. And not just on Twitter.