Overton window tested against Australia's carbon pricing rise and fall

An Australian analysis from The Conversation uses the rise and fall of carbon pricing to test the Overton window, the idea that policy shifts only when the acceptable range of public debate moves first. It walks through the full arc: Howard refusing an emissions trading scheme in 2003, both major parties promising one by 2007, Rudd shelving it, Gillard's fixed price, Abbott's 'great big new tax' framing, and the eventual repeal in favor of the safeguard mechanism. Climate salience fell from 52 percent of voters rating it extremely important in 2007 to 30 percent in 2010, so the article argues that issue salience, framing, and median voter dynamics explain the outcome better than a think tank-driven window. It still credits real actors, including business-backed think tanks and party members, but warns that the Overton window is not the only tool, and not always the best. For carbon market watchers, it is a useful reminder that political feasibility is movable, but not by bold messaging alone.