Cate Blanchett

Actress Cate Blanchett and former conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser are among prominent Australians who threw their support Monday behind the unpopular government plan to tax major polluters for the carbon gas they emit.Blanchett and Fraser were among 140 personalities and organizations who signed a petition distributed to federal lawmakers supporting the center-left government's plan to make polluters pay for every ton of carbon gas they produce in a bid to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.The petition — whose signatories also include a Roman Catholic bishop and a Nobel Laureate scientist — is part of a $1 million national newspaper and television advertising campaign funded by environmental groups and unionists.The conservative opposition Liberal Party is opposed to making polluters pay. The governing Labor Party wants to tax polluters starting in July 2012, and is locked in negotiations with the minor Greens party and independent lawmakers on how much the tax sh...

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