Is she aware there's currently much soul searching among Italian engineers about a string of humiliating Ferrari failures on the Grand Prix circuit? In fact, a 15 per cent (what a coincidental figure!) slump in circuit ticket sales is being blamed on Ferrari's poor track performance. Yes, there will definitely be jokes today about the wheels falling off the Government's emissions trading scheme.

The biggest problem with the scheme is the low emission reduction targets 5 to 15 per cent which have done little to repair Australia's global reputation as a climate change laggard. There was a burst of hope and global goodwill when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol in Bali, shortly after his Government was elected in 2007. But Australia is now seen as ducking the issue and being out of step on climate change reform. As questions in this month's Senate estimates hearings revealed, the Government is all over the shop in its response to climate change, but not all over the issue.

Who are they listening to, when shaping climate change policy? Are we seeing the results of inexperienced policy advice, or an intransigent commitment to the vested interests of political donors?

In an editorial published yesterday in The Independent, British economist Lord Nicholas Stern warned that the only future for long-term sustainable economic growth was a low-carbon economy. High-carbon growth will be ''choked off'' by high fossil fuel prices and ''the massive potential costs of unmitigated climate change''. He also says claims that emissions regulations will prompt polluters to ''flee across borders'' is not supported by evidence. It follows that carbon leakage is a myth and there is not much of a case for compensating the big polluters for being out of pocket.

The Rudd Government needs to listen to criticisms of its carbon pollution reduction scheme, be prepared to strip down the chassis and relaunch it. We'd prefer a vehicle that's got more climate change grunt under its bonnet. Whatever happened to the Holden Ecommodore?