Professor Ross Garnaut must be feeling a little like a jilted lover these days — courted and then dumped when he turned out to be, well, needy. You might recall statements like this from Kevin Rudd while wooing Australian voters last year:

Rudd on Insiders, 29 April, 2007: We are absolutely determined to act on climate change. We have taken a responsible position that we need to establish a carbon reduction target … In terms of sub targets we establish within that, that’s why we’ve decided to establish an Australian Stern committee to look precisely at how that can be modelled best over time.

But this morning, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong feigned ignorance about the timing of the draft review release.

Kathy Bowlen, 774 Melbourne: What’s in the Garnaut report?

Penny Wong: You’ll have to ask the Professor. I think he’s releasing it on Friday, from memory … As we’ve said on a number of occasions, Professor Garnaut is independent of government …

What next? “Ross who? Review what? Sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong government.”

Minister Wong’s memory did serve her correctly — Professor Garnaut will release The Garnaut Climate Change Review Draft this Friday at the Press Club from 12.30pm. Crikey will be publishing updates and commentary on our website from 3pm onwards on Friday afternoon — check your inbox for a special afternoon alert. 

In the meantime, we’re very happy to say that Crikey’s US correspondent Guy Rundle is back on the campaign trail after a short break.