The question is, how long will this last, and how long will the public tolerate these two kissy faced politicians?
The vote in the lower house, which was applauded by Labor MPs and spectators in the public gallery, was a crucial test for the government, given its wafer-thin majority. The bills will now go the Senate for debate but will pass comfortably with help from the Greens, probably next month.
After the vote, Prime Minister Julia Gillard embraced Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, who had the difficult job of steering the policy, and even exchanged a peck on the cheek with Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd, whose reported ambitions to retake the leadership are proving a headache for the Prime Minister.
The passage of the bills are a crucial victory for Ms Gillard, whose popularity has fallen steadily since last year.
Under the legislation, about 500 of the biggest carbon-emitting companies in Australia will pay a price for each tonne of carbon. Most of the biggest emitters are electricity generating firms, mining companies and heavy industry manufacturers.
To compensate households, the government is cutting income taxes and boosting payments such as pensions and other benefits, as well as offering various lump sum payments.
The average household is expected to pay about $9.90 a week in extra living costs, including $3.30 on electricity.
However this will be offset by an estimated $10.10 in extra benefits and tax breaks. The Australian scheme will cover about 60 per cent of Australia’s emissions, making it the most broad-based in the world.
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Heartfelt condolences from the Far East.
Our bill is now on the shelf in Diet. I sincerely hope it’ll never pass.
Fossil fuels to be 20% the 2000 level by 2050. Back to the Stone Age.
Insanity….A victory for the pale green rider.
Actually Peculiar Juliar doesn’t care that she is the most hated person in Aus because this was her ticket for the trans-national gravy-train. She’ll be shoved into some UN post, or a NGO or some such at a six-figure salary with pensions beyond any tedious annoyances like elections.
Her peck with Rudd was probably “That’s me up and away, you’re welcome to the wreck of the Party” or “So long sucker, thanks for all the fish”.
Down under just went under, but what can I say as a Brit? Well, misery loves company so welcome to the club.
The Titanic sunk in 1911, and Australia is marking the centenary with it’s Carbon Tax.
Australia, like the Titanic is sitting on its own, going nowhere. The hope and expectation is, that like the Titanic, the tax will sink slowly and gracefully to the bottom of the ocean before it gets into regular business.
A few things to note:
1) Julia Gilard (of the red hair) went into the last election (2010) promising there would be no carbon tax (sic) under any Government she led. This promise was clearly shattered today.
2) Julia Gillard ousted Kevin Rudd (whom she is seen kissing in the photo) just months before the last election was called.
3) Gillard did not win the 2010 election outright and only maintains power in a minority Government with the assistance of the Greens and three key independents.
4) The majority of Australians do not support this legislation, but the minority Government has rammed it through regardless.
5) The opposition leader (who would win in a landslide if an election was held today) has promised a “blood oath” to repeal this legislation if he gets into power.
6) One of the key independents (Andrew Wilkie) has threatened to remove support for the minority Government (which only has a one vote majority in the Lower House) if they do not consider poker machine reform legislation by May 2012.
7) Poker machine legislation as desired by Andrew Wilkie would decimate Julia Gillard’s Labor party completely (it hits their voter heartland) and can therefore not be considered, resulting in a probable vote of no confidence by May 2010.
Here’s my opinion of the near future for Labor. Having rammed through the CO2 tax legislation, they will be looking to a change of leadership in the next few months to toss out Julia Gillard and the associated political taint of the “carbon tax.” They shall then call a snap election before May 2012 before Wilkie can defect from the minority government.
It is shameful, to say the least, that this minority government shall celebrate this as a great legislative victory despite squeaking into power having promised no such tax would be introduced. It is a credit to Australian tolerance (ignorance? apathy?) that we have been so civil about this political outrage.
Every country gets the government it deserves. Since there were no mass-demonstrations, I think people will learn to live with it, yet with a lower GDP, more government, less freedom and less prosperity. I say this with pain in my heart. I wish you Aussies would have taken action against this red-green monster, but you still have a choice and a voice!
Marx always thought that socialism would appear from capitalism. He was right I guess. Next step according to Marx will be full blown communism. Then people have no choice and voice at all anymore.
So, let’s find out how long the ASSR will survive.
God, have mercy on their soules.
As a patriotic English cricket fan I wish I could say that I am saddened to see The Ozzies doing something so spectaculary stupid as this. But fits of schadenfreude keep bursting out. England hold the Cricketing Ashes…the Oz just have the Ashes of their Economy. Tee hee
On a more serious note, I think that this experiment will be watched very closely around the world for both the policy and the politics. If, as expected, Gillard gets soundly trounced at the next election – in part because of this pointless tax, then it would be a brave(*) politician anywhere in the democratic wolrd who tried to introduce a similar measure.
This one could just be the Bridge Too Far for the public and mark the beginning of the end of the false politics of climate change
* Brave = foolhardy to the point of recklessness in Sir Humphrey-speak
On the Wikipedia Climate Change Public Opinion page I see the following selected listings:
Caused by Perceived Country Awareness human as threat activity Australia 97 54 75 Canada 95 61 74 China 62 58 21 Germany 96 59 60 Japan 99 91 80 United Kingdom 97 48 69 United States 97 49 63I am not sure how current these listings are but it looks like Australia is one of the nations where Global Warming is still widely believed to be a human caused threat even though the change in CO2 concentration from 280 PPM to 396 PPM appears to have caused a less than 2-watt per square meter raw decrease in an overall out-welling LWIR flow of 300 watts per square meter at 99 km up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_opinion_by_country
Wow….all that and a thrashing by the All Blacks in the upcoming Rugby World Cup semi final too….a bad week for Aussie. 😉
Not one Labor MP had the good sense and conscience to vote down the stupid thing, even though there are a number of closet skeptics. History will remember this betrayal of the Australian people.
What’s the tax raise – 10-20 billion dollars – all set overseas – about 20 million Aussies – thew 4 or 5 dollars a week compo SHE has promissed will fall a bit short.
Seem to remember someone named Judas – look what happened to the person he kissed.
Speaker Harry Jenkins warned that it was a privilege to be allowed into the public gallery.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/gallery-disrupts-gillard-20111012-1lkdj.html#ixzz1aYO8uLnz
I think the appropriate response from the public is: ‘ Privilege my [body part]. We pay your salary.’
Looks to me like a perfect time to “short” Australia. Their markets should be headed (even more) South in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s a bad policy, nevertheless your commentors shouldn’t be so hysterical. It won’t lead to economic catastrophe, and emotive hyperbole is unmanly and un-Australian!
“bubbagyro says:
October 12, 2011 at 12:34 am
Great! this will help our US and Canadian economies come back maybe this year even, as we lose another previously formidable competitor for our coal and steel and manufacturing industries. Good on ya, mates!”
Oz coal industry will do very well. It’s selling as much as it can produce to China. Of course Australia isn’t producing that CO2, China is. What a deceptive, hypocritical bunch these politicians are!
We have a bunch of political suicide bombers for ministers at the moment. But don’t blame us – we can’t wait to demolish them:
http://resources.news.com.au/files/2011/10/11/1226163/501640-111011-newspoll.pdf
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps
NB: lowest global sea level temp for this day in past 10 years!
The most traitorous kiss since Judas. Good luck, Aussies. You’ll need it.
I keep saying this, vote that woman OUT. Labour has ruined the UK and your labour party seem hell bent on doing the same to Australia.
While the eurozone countries are doing their damnest (tht is more economic stupidities) to pick up the pieces from the euro-debacle that was the consequence of high energy costs that had resulted from socialist carbon politics, the Ozzies are doing their damnest to do a euro to their dollar.
They used to say that before God destroys someone, He makes him go mad.
Unless I have missed it, here in the UK an eerie silence reigns on the BBC and Sky. Perhaps they are at a loss for words to describe the enormity of what has happened or perhaps they fear that the UK reaction to the news might be ridicule rather than fervent approbation.
With the MSM here whipping up a fear of what the approaching winter might bring, and a population smarting from a cooler than average summer, now is not the time to mention global warming, still less the antics of a bunch of left wing idiots, on the other side of the world, committing national suicide at a present time of great financial danger to the economies of the western world.
I shake my head in despair. I want to go on the record as a constituent of Tony Windsor – one of the Independents who voted for this legislation and say that I wrote a number of emails directly to him asking him to rethink his decision in the face of the overwhelming evidence against the CAGW mythology.
My despair comes from the knowledge that when the Australian Economy has caught up with and passed the rest of the world in it’s downward plunge the history books will not honestly attribute the cause to this most idiotic of decisions by a totally incompetent government.
Another area of the economy which will not be compensated is the charities and non green NGOs such as the Mens Sheds of which I am a volunteer member. These types of volunteer organisations will be essential for the care of the masses that I predict will soon be out of work and walking the back roads just as happened in the 1890s and 1930s.
Luckily I have some good productive land that maybe I can grow some food on and help feed the starving folks… providing I can still buy some deisel fuel for my tractor and some fertiliser :-).
It was no kiss, remember the film Alien? This is her way to ensure there is no take over by Rudd. In a day or two there will be a small red headed creature bursting from Rudd’s tum.
On a serious note this is a bad day for Australia, she has deliberately made an unwanted, useless tax very difficult to get reversed. There are property rights attached to peoples carbon credits, what about the peoples right to be heard, 84% of people (voters) did not want it.
Had this gone to an election she would have lost over this issue. Not every Aussie is dumb, just the ones that vote Labor or Green or attend rallies demanding their right to pay more tax, say no more.