He’s done it very carefully, of course. The usual Ruddsterness of saying effectively ‘oh, I don’t think it’s a problem, but everyone else does, so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work out right.’

John Howard’s prime dog-whistle was telling everyone he disagreed with Pauline Hanson while saying that her views were legitimate and had to be heard. Here we have Rudd pronouncing to the world that we can’t wait to take action on climate change while lamenting that that others obviously think we have to wait until the financial crisis is over. Howard took the opportunity to adopt Hanson’s policies and attitude. Rudd is adopting a target that he admits is deliberately weak because of the GFC.

Dog-whistle politics at its best, folks. This is how it’s going to be for the rest of the debate…