SYDNEY (AFP) – Hollywood star Cate Blanchett Tuesday defended her decision to front a campaign promoting the Australian government's carbon tax, saying she backed action on climate change for her children's sake.
Dubbed "Carbon Cate" by the Sunday Telegraph, the actor was attacked as being a jet-setting, multi-millionaire who was out of touch with ordinary Australians who fear a rise in the cost of living from a price on carbon.
"I'm not really surprised by the reactions from people on the other side of the debate. People are entitled to their opinion," said Blanchett, who was dismissed in one comment piece as "just another morally vain Hollywood star".
The Oscar-winning actor, who has three young boys with husband Andrew Upton, said there was a cost to society from carbon pollution, and this was what she was passionate about as a mother.
"That's where it gets me in the gut," she told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"I can't look my children in the face if I'm not trying to do something in my small way and to urge other people.
"Yes, I've been fortunate in my career but that's no reason not to stand up for something that I deeply believe in."
Blanchett's star role in the new television campaign, which is funded by a coalition of unions and green groups and urges Australians to "Say Yes" to a tax on carbon, has become a national talking point in the climate debate.
Centre-right opposition leader Tony Abbott used the celebrity endorsement to attack Prime Minister Julia Gillard in parliament on Monday.
"This is a prime minister who's happy to listen to actors, but she won't listen to voters," he said.
Australians are among the world's worst per capita carbon polluters and Gillard has proposed a tax to be levied on major industrial polluters by July 1, 2012, with plans for a full emissions trading scheme in three to five years.
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