It seems Australians are waking up to the folly of a carbon tax. I’m sure Mr. Flannery’s quote of the millenium helped bunches.
However the sheer pig-headedness of PM Julia Gillard, who lied about not seeking a carbon tax to get elected, is stunning in this statement:
Ms Gillard yesterday vowed to press head with the carbon tax plan despite poor polling and the campaign from the Opposition Leader.
“I’m interested in the policy cycle not the political cycle,” Ms Gillard said.
Full story here
The voter opinion turnaround is testament to the hard work of my sceptical friends in Australia. Good on ya!
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That quote has many translations, one of which is, “I’m gonna ram this thru, like it or lump it!”
As I’ve said twice before, ‘Global warming was cute, understandable… until everyone realized that the government wants to TAX us NOW… to reduce the temperature ONE HUNDRED YEARS from NOW!’ What sane citizen wouldn’t see through such a folly?
To be fair, Julia Gillard is probably sensible enough to know that a) there is no evidence for AGW and b) even if there were, a carbon tax in Australia is going to have a negligible effect. Unfortunately she is running a minority government where the balance of power is largely held by the Greens, and where one Prime Minister has already been sacrificed because of his support for a carbon tax (coupled with general dithering incompetence). To push through a carbon tax now will probably bring down the government: but to make an embarrassing backflip will have the same effect. I suspect what Gillard is hoping for is some ‘unforeseen’ circumstance to hold up the introduction of the carbon tax until enough people have come around to the view that it is better buried; then the Greens can be dumped and sanity will prevail.
GogogoStopSTOP says:
May 3, 2011 at 10:23 pm
As I’ve said twice before, ‘Global warming was cute, understandable… until everyone realized that the government wants to TAX us NOW… to reduce the temperature ONE HUNDRED YEARS from NOW!’ What sane citizen wouldn’t see through such a folly?_________________________________________________________
The temperature has been steady or dropping for 10 years …. they are trying to tax you before people realize what is really going on … a tax excuse.
Want to reduce your ‘carbon foot print’?
Remember to wipe your feet, before you come in the door…….
“I’m interested in the policy cycle not the political cycle”
Translation: “I am not interested in if the people want this or not, we are just going to play tyrant and stick it to them anyway even if it costs me my job. When are people going to learn that we rule this country and the people are our subjects.”
I am reminded of some words that we have in our founding document here in the US that come after that bit about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”:
Sounds to me like some alterations are in the cards at some point in the future.
Unfortunately Anthony, just as in other parts of the world, the alarmists are determined to go down kicking and screaming. They are becomign obsessed with the notion that their wonderful policy that stinks to high heaven, just isn’t being ‘sold’ properly.
In addition, theyare ramping up the rhetoric, as exampled by this comment from one of the principle climate change spruikers, Clive Hamilton.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47450
In an article likening the belief in climate change to human rights and womens lib, he makes the proposal
“Sometimes coaxing the public to your point of view reaches an immovable barrier. Sometimes people must be jolted out of their complacency by militancy, even if that means a period of rancour, turmoil and danger.”
and
“A wave of environmental radicalism, of uncivil disobedience, will have succeeded when the conservative press begin praising Bob Brown and Christine Milne as voices of reason and moderation, as indeed they are.”
Note: Bob Brown and Christine Milne are our resident radical greenies.
He leaves us with
“But climate science now shows that the situation has become so urgent, and the forecasts so dire, that only radical social and economic transformation will give us a chance of avoiding dramatic and irreversible changes to the global climate.”
Also note that Clive has previously stated
“T)he implications of 3C, let alone 4C or 5C, are so horrible that we look to any possible scenario to head it off, including the canvassing of “emergency” responses such as the suspension of democratic processes”
Of course the unwritten “fact” in all of this is that Clive sees himself as the one to assume power.
Political suicide for the ALP, but they have another 2 years in power. The problem is, the Libs are committed to climate change as well. Being a political animal, how long will it be until Tony Abbott sniffs which way the wind is blowing and go back to saying “Global warming is crap.” Soon I hope. But the same survey found 72% thought humans have some influence on climate change.
I am surprised there is no comment on the Canadian elections. The Conservatives who will form government in their own right had a policy disagreeing with any carbon tax, any stronger environmental regulation, and a continuation of encouraging oil sands mining. Voters have approved these policies and rejected the environmental policies of the Greens and Liberals.
I think there is a world move to reject AGW.
I hope that the vote will be a some encouragement for Dr Tim Ball in his defence against Mann and Weaver.
I’m pretty sure more than 60% is against this Carbon(dioxide) Tax. I get about the town a fair bit and have not come across anyone who is for it.
Also, I got involved with a phone survey and when they found I was over 60, they didn’t want to here what my opinions were.
Next time I said I was 55 and went right through the questions, about the carbon tax. Just another way of fixing the results. I guess us oldies don’t have a clue anymore.
Also, Prof. Bob Carter is speaking at the Hervey Bay RSL tonight, starts at 6:30pm.
I’ll be there with my WUWT Tee shirt on !!
BTW, from my note over in the notes and tips, I’m using the Optus wireless broadband mobile modem right now to connect to WUWT, TPG has still got me blocked.
Gillard is still trying to sell the tax, and failing. People are, FINALLY, realising that someone like economist Ross “Gold Mine” Garnaut, the Govn’t climate change adviser, have not one clue about the science behind climate change or the physical properties of Co2. As I’ve posted before, Ross was out of his depth a while back on an SBS show called “Insight”. He was blabbing and spluttering and did not answer a single question directly. Same too with Gillard, no answers, no policy. People can see it for what it is, a tax to bring the Labor Govn’t in to surplus before the 2013 election. Me thinks things will happen before that.
I liked this, also from an Aussie source…
http://www.nocarbontax.com.au/?p=1374
Julia has many attributes. Like a pitbull does. And she shares the lack of intelligence, discernment, and temperament. It is difficult to decide whether she is simply graceless or a disgrace. One thing is sure, she is uneducated.
Her behavior echoes the actions of most other socialist ideologues on warming.
Something is afoot here. Why did she vow no tax, then immediately reverse course?
Either deception or vast sums of money (or both) are in play here.
The Minions of the U.N. have surely offered bribes to every constituent to play along.
I think we can still thank Climategate, and whoever released the emails, for people’s continued reluctance to listen to lies. In the wake of Climategate, from memory, the 20% core of skepticism abruptly became 30%+, and the road to eco-serfdom suddenly filled with potholes.
Pigheaded is a rather gentle term for “thick” in this case. Canadian Voters recently withdrew support from Pols interested in taxing carbon as part of their election platform, a fact that Ms. Gillard should perhaps take heed of…but I think the likelihood of unnaturally-airborne farm animals is greater.
Cementafriend, you beat me to it. The Canadian Conservative party can now be a lot more overt in rejecting the junk “science” of CAGW. I’m hoping that Steven Harper still holds his views that he expressed as leader of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that CAGW was a crock. Now that he’s Prime Minister, and has a majority government, it will be safe for him to express those views again. I’m hoping that Canada can be a world leader in debunking CAGW and that Vaclav Klaus won’t be a lone voice speaking the truth among national leaders. We’ve had M&M demolish the hockey stick and hopefully they will now receive some recognition in Canada from the government.
Both opposition parties in Canada were for a carbon tax and the voters have spoken. It remains to be seen if the BC government sees the light and eliminates its progressive carbon tax or whether they are just too addicted to tax revenues.
My sympathies to the Australians and my advice is protest vocally now as taxes, once they are established, are harder to get rid of than getting a junkie off heroin. Governments, regardless of political party, are addicted to tax revenues and the best thing is to not allow them to get their hands on a source of income.
Somehow we have to force an election before this idiotic tax gets shoved up our noses, (its certainly on the nose). Anyone any ideas how we can rid of this deceitful ALP/green government ?
Indeed Boris. Once the taxes go on they’ll be very hard to take off. Fight this tooth and nail. Let Gillard know that appeasing the Greens (and outright lying!) will not be tolerated.
Why can’t politicians see that a carbon tax will only put up the cost of living without having the slightest effect on carbon emissions. The lying by, and the shear effrontery of this woman will bring Australia down to its economic knees. The rational and sensible thinking majority must work harder to have this dangerous and stupid woman removed from office as soon as possible . We in Britain give you our full support and are all hoping that the ultimate downfall of those irrational AGW fanatics in Australia will show our own politicians in the UK that following a hard line policy on taxing everyone in the country on carbon emmisions will lead to their ultimate downfall also. We are watching you with hope as I am sure that a clear and positive ‘NO’ by you Australians will mean the beginning of the end for the dangerous AGW cult across the world.
Cementafriend says: May 3, 2011 at 10:51 pm
“I am surprised there is no comment on the Canadian elections.”
OK, here’s one.
The media position:
“Tories opt out of campaign tour carbon offsets”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/04/cv-election-carbon-footprint.html#
“The leaders’ carbon footprints – the final tally”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/05/the-leaders-carbon-footprints—the-final-tally.html
The Conservatives [Tories] refused to knuckle under to the main stream media, Greenpeace, WWF, Suzuki and every other CAGW zealot. Every other political party in the Canadian election paid the Gaia stipend.
Canadians voted on May 2, 2011.
The Conservatives won a Majority government.
There will be no carbon tax, no cap-and-trade, no UN climate change deals and no green destruction of our economy for at least four years. The Prime Minister thinks the whole CAGW is thing is false, and has said so.
Does any other political party in the developed world have the guts to completely, completely ignore the ‘Big Green Machine’ during an election campaign?
It will be interesting watching the rest of the developed world devolve while we use our vast energy resources to build our economy.
Be patient Australia and America, your chance will come soon enough.
Great Britain; sorry, too bad so sad.
Cementafriend says: May 3, 2011 at 10:51 pm
“I am surprised there is no comment on the Canadian elections.”
My comment is about the 1993 Canadian election, and the wipeout of the governing Progressive Conservative Party, who were so on the nose they lost all but 2 seats. They were completely gone by 2003.
Here in Oz an ex ALP federal minister warned last week that the ALP was ripe for being cannibalised by a new social democrat party:
“There are tens of thousands of Labor supporters who, if they don’t see genuine reform, will vote for a new, social democratic party. A public meeting called tomorrow for disenchanted Labor supporters would pack the Sydney Town Hall.”
So Ms Gillard should be careful – by ignoring us voters she just might cause her party to become a real climate change related extinction.
Andrew30 says: May 4, 2011 at 12:26 am
Yes, congratulations to Canada! (Pity about the Green victory, though!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/03/canada-elects-first-green-mp?CMP=twt_fd
The political situation in the UK seems all but hopeless.
I’m just hoping that (not for the first time) all you folks from the Dominions and former Colonies will get your acts together and come and help us out!
Folks,
The lowering of our standard of living is precisely what the liberal politicians want to achieve – the fools are those who believe that it’s all about mitigating the future climate. It sort of is, but they have the wrong climate – it ain’t the weather climate they want to mitigate but the wealth climate.
Pat – some of the cleverest people I know are “uneducated” – the intelligent poor usually. And amongst the educated there are many stupid people – .the rich but thick usually. The two qualities shouldn’t be conflated.
JG should, I agree, pay more attention to the preferences of the public – that’s the essence of democracy after all – but the ship of state can’t allow itself to be blown about too much by the changing winds of public opinion, which is still too sensitive to the sensationalising of certain elements of the MSM.