On July 1st, the much hated Carbon Tax was implemented in Australia. Given that PM Gillard made a promise for no Carbon Tax on video at the beginning of her term in August 2010, then broke that promise, followed by a devil may care attitude, I can’t imagine anything that would enrage Australians as much as this.
Since there is so much coverage on this epic failure of the Gillard government, I thought I’d create a collage of coverage here. Follow the links to the appropriate essays and news articles. There’s also a speech at the end. First up is Jo Nova:
The-Tax-Whose-Name-Shall-Not-Be-Spoken Begins
Australians will pay $77 million per week in carbon taxes, while Europe with the 30 most green countries pays just one third of that, according to the Mineral Council of Australia.
“Australia’s carbon tax starts generating $77.3 million per week from today. New figures from the Centre for International Economics show that Europe’s emissions trading scheme — which covers 30 nations — has generated $23m per week so far in 2012.”
…
The ACCI points out the contradiction in sending a price signal but intimidating anyone who dares to say how big that signal is.
…
I loved this cartoon she posted to get around the ridiculous law that says shop owners can’t mention price increases due to the tax:
She says: Shop owners — do feel free to plagiarize ad lib. No copyright on those images.
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Carbon Tax Day and Labor slumps to 22% in Queensland
The carbon tax is now in operation and according to the latest Newspoll Labor will not win a seat in Queensland and is in danger of a wipeout Australia -wide if an election is held. A new Nielsen Poll also shows the carbon tax is poison for Labor in the electorate. It may not be true but the electorate will see every price rise as a result of the tax and it will be difficult to convince voters otherwise. As a political figure Julia Gillard was portrayed as an iron lady in the Thatcher mold when the carbon tax was introduced but she is now looking very much like Marie Antoinette riding in a tumbril to her fate.
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Voters desert carbon tax
PUBLIC support for the carbon price has plunged to a record low of 33 per cent, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard faces the fight of her political life to try to reconcile the public to her deeply unpopular tax.
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An utterly unserious government. An insult to our intelligence | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
My God. This man is a minister in the Federal Government, trying to explain to Australian voters why they are paying a tax that won’t do anything the government claims, but will cost them jobs.
Would Menzies have behaved like this? John Howard? Bob Hawke?
Watch the singing and dancing from 1:20, and know that we are led by children.
The government has become a circus. Draw the curtain.
For those WUWT readers who don’t know:
Craig Anthony Emerson, Australian politician, has represented the House of Representatives seat of Rankin in Queensland for the Australian Labor Party since the 1998 federal election. He is the Minister for Trade in the Second Gillard Ministry.
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Here is a speech delivered by my friend David Archibald in Sydney yesterday at the Carbon Tax Rally:
Sydney Carbon Tax Rally Speech, 1st July 2012
Fellow Australians.
Plato said that “The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
There is no doubt that we are ruled by evil men and evil women.
Evil men and evil women who are fully aware of the damage they are doing to our economy, and to the warp and weft of our society.
Evil men and evil women who seem to be in a manic rush to do as much damage as possible in the time left to them.
It is now universally accepted that the carbon tax is a very bad thing promoted by evil people.
The evil goes back a bit further than Julia Gillard’s broken promise and Kevin Rudd’s inane pronouncements.
This tax has been a long time coming, and has mixed paternity.
The last dark deed of the Howard Government was the passage of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act in October 2007.
That act is the auditing basis of the carbon tax.
Mr Howard’s plan was to get the auditing system bedded down, then start taxing.
Labor’s carbon tax would be a couple of years behind schedule if Mr Howard had not laid the bureaucratic foundations for it.
The evil that men do lives after them, and in Mr Howard’s case that is a possible future in which Australia does not have a cement industry, a steel industry, oil refining, a multitude of other industries and, most importantly, a synthetic liquid fuels industry.
That is the part of the Howard legacy that many of us have toiled mightily to avoid.
That legacy is now with us, and we stare into the abyss of a continually shrinking economy.
The list of carbon tax plotters is a lot longer than Howard, Rudd and Gillard.
As a scientist, what saddens me is that most of our scientific institutions have failed in their duty to serve and protect the Australian people.
The CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the universities – have all failed us and sold their souls for a handful of silver.
Our academics have met our lowest expectations of them.
And then, there are the institutions that actively, and purposefully, and very treacherously, conspire against us.
Chief of which is the ABC, which has ceaselessly, and shamelessly, promoted the bizarre cult of carbon.
The ABC pays lip service to the norms of our society while doing their utmost to undermine it.
The ABC is well past its use by date.
It sees Australia through its perverted lens of self-loathing.
The next federal Government will inherit a lot of debt.
Sacrifices will have to be made to pay off that debt.
The easiest sacrifice to make will be to shut down the ABC.
The huge sum that is spent keeping the beast alive would be better spent paying off Labor’s legacy of debt.
If our nation is to endure, the ABC must not survive the next term of federal parliament.
None who love this country will weep for it.
Just as this Government did not weep for the cement workers who have already lost their jobs due to the carbon tax.
And then there is the matter of the CSIRO.
They have told too many lies over too many years.
Their betrayal of the Australian people cannot be forgiven.
To this day, they are trying to sell the Australian people into the slavery and oppression of the carbon tax.
The CSIRO must be reformed through the benefit of much correction.
The factory and smelter closures due to the carbon tax, that were so predictable, have begun.
Many of those factories will be closed forever, and no amount of wishing or hoping or endless tears will bring them back again.
The people who worked in those factories, leading productive lives that helped us all – well, many of those lives are now broken, families broken, ambition thwarted.
To those whoever breathed a word in favour of the carbon tax, bear the guilt of those broken and disrupted lives, and broken and disrupted marriages, to your graves.
Your sin was not a love of nature, but a loathing for your fellow man.
Your fault was not a desire to do the right thing, but lack of an enquiring mind.
The notion of global warming was concocted to provide a cloak of scientific respectability for a massive socialist redistribution of wealth.
That is as plain as day.
All attempts to even up slices from our economic pie, irrespective of effort, result in a shrunken and misshapen pie.
Thus we are witnessing the shrinking of the Australian economy now under way due to the carbon tax.
It is an accident of history that that notion of global warming caused people like me to enquire as to what actually is going on with our climate.
I am proud to have done my bit to push back against the darkness that ever encroaches on us.
What I found is that there is much to fear, but of course in the opposite direction to that claimed by the socialists.
I will summarise the findings of my last six years of research in the field of climate science in two sentences:
Our generation has known a warm, giving Sun.
The next will suffer a Sun that is less giving, and the World will be less fruitful.
Specifically, the current solar cycle is going to be a very long one.
That will result in the climate over the following solar cycle being very cold.
The grain belts of the wold will shift up to 700 km towards the equator.
World grain production will fall by at least 25%.
That is going to be the biggest problem the World will face in the next thirty years.
What about carbon dioxide?
Carbon dioxide is tuckered out as a greenhouse gas.
The total warming from here due to carbon dioxide may be up to point four of a degree centigrade.
Or it may even be nothing.
All we can be sure of is that it is not a problem.
The heating effect from carbon dioxide will be lost in the noise of the climate system.
The fake problem of carbon is distracting us from real problems.
First of which is the fact that Australia’s oil self-sufficiency is declining rapidly.
It is forty per cent now.
It will be down to twenty-five per cent by 2020.
We now import oil from as far afield as Azerbaijan, Algeria and the Congo.
We are forced to rely upon their kindness to keep our farms and factories running.
It need not be like that.
We could make our own transport fuels from our own coal.
And keep the money we pay for them in Australia.
Only then will our nation have any hope of being secure and happy.
But that won’t happen while the carbon tax, and the mining tax, live.
The carbon tax and the mining tax are a particularly horrific combination for Australia.
The carbon tax penalises our biggest resource endowment.
The message from the mining tax is that risk capital is not welcome in Australia.
The synthetic fuel plants meant for us will be built in Canada and Chile instead.
There could be a very good outcome from this carbon tax debacle.
It is not enough to merely put things back the way they were before this particular lot of Australia-haters came along.
We must use this opportunity – your righteous anger – to unleash the Furies on those who failed us, and those who conspired against us.
There are so many wrongs that need to be righted if we are to make Australia the earthly paradise it should be.
So let’s right those wrongs.
Let’s not squander control of the Senate next time.
Let’s have a good cleanout.
It requires effort on your part.
Coming here today is only the beginning.
Many of you are shareholders, and many of the companies you are invested in have sold their souls to get their snouts into the carbon trough.
Make their lives hell.
They deserve it.
Hound the directors until they recant.
As for any politicians who have ever believed in global warming, or supported the carbon tax, or a carbon-constrained economy, there is no hope for them.
They are either too stupid or incompetent to be taken seriously.
Merely recanting, at this late stage, won’t be enough.
Make their lives hell too, just as they wished a diminished life on you.
Australia will soon face some big challenges as the world enters one of its most turbulent periods.
Just maintaining our standard of living in the face of those challenges will require a lot of rigor.
We will only get the required level of rigor if we demand it.
Firstly of ourselves, and then of the politicians we choose to represent us.
Even then, keeping Australia safe and secure and happy will take our eternal vigilance.
David Archibald
Perth-based scientist David Archibald is a Visiting Fellow of the Institute of World Politics in Washington where he teaches a course in Strategic Energy Policy.
I’m beginning to think that Robert Kennedy Jr. and Ed Begley Jr. have compromising photos of every politician on earth. What else could possibly explain the reflexive genuflecting to the green altar that 90% of politicians engage in? It is mind boggling.
A carbon tax will not replace $1 of the investment required to reduce carbon emissions by replacing carbon-emitting facilities with non -carbon-emitting facilities. It will merely add cost on top of the investment requirement.
Do you think that when they make a film about all this, that Julia Gillard will be played by Jodie Foster?
Australia, welcome to the club of the corrupted politicians.
“while Europe with the 30 most green countries”
Let’s get back the stolen “green” word. Green is the chlorophyll dye, made of carbon, which was taken by plants in form of CO2 from the air.
WTF?!?
How are you spelling Rankin?
The video says all you need to know about Emerson and Gillard!
By the way Anthony, I have just returned from Italy where we met many Aussies who were amazed at our level of knowledge about Gil(liar)d and the carbon (dioxide) tax.
I have NEVER heard such a unanimous outpouring of disdain and, I have to say it, hatred against a single politician.
I don’t do hatred but the response – from each individual Aussie met over several days and never in a group – was truly staggering. Gillard was so reviled that several Aussies could barely get her name out of their mouth.
If this modest vox pop is representative, Gillard and her party are going to get the hardest ass-kicking ever administered to politicians in the developed world when the election rolls round.
Sod the diet – I will buy popcorn for this one.
At least we have an opposition that will get rid of the tax.It could be worse,we could have an opposition leader like Turnbull who went along with the ETS until the Liberals ousted him as leader.Hopefully Abbott will be elected next year,and is able to get rid of this monstrosity before it gets too large.
Abbott is now saying
“There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”
I believe him.
Let’s see, shop owners can’t mention price increases due to the tax, but the increase is only a modest amount according to Craig Emerson. So, if it’s only a modest amount, why can’t shop owners tell the buyers exactly how much the price increase is?
Noelene;
Abbott is now saying
“There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”
>>>>>>>>>
My question would be is Abbott simply taking advantage of the backlash against the carbon tax? Or does Abbott speak out against the CAGW meme as well? Beware politicians for what they don’t say as much as what they do say.
We have a popular panel discussion show here called Q&A on the ABC public network (liberals/left) and the carbon tax occupied most of its 1 hour airing tonight. A gentleman, Simon Sheikh, who represents our left wing GetUp! lobby group appeared on the show – but didn’t last too long.
See his performance here,
(he’s reported to be OK, just a bit of stage fright I think)
Anthony, you should add the video of the woman confronting Gillard and asking her point blank why she lied about the carbon tax. And the best part is she smacks down Gillard’s flunky as well.
She’s a European mole.
Gotcha, Aussies. 😉
Look, to be honest, Julia probably hates the carbon tax as much as the next citizen.
But, Julia is a deal-maker, and this deal got her the support and votes of a couple of ‘greens’, and that gave her the majority she needed to form a government.
And, THAT was all that mattered to Julia. I’m pretty sure there is no deal she would back away from to get what she wanted.
(It’d be nicer if she had the good of the nation at heart, but unfortunately, right through her political history, it appears she has only the good of Julia at heart).
The Global Warming Game is No Way to Run a Railroad
They are not exactly bragging, are they? When you have threaten shop owners with a $10,000 fine for mentioning why the new menu is pricier, something is seriously wrong in your society. Australia has given up free expression to free the politicians to force these mad left-wing schemes upon the populace.
This is what you get when a society does not have someone like George Bush to stand up to up to the UN and the superstitious crowd and the purveyors of fear from the Left like that lone Chinaman facing the tanks in Tiananmen square with nothing but the courage in his heart to exercise free will, represent the unrepresented, and to oppose the mindless conformity of the Climatists that have been chosen at this point in time in the evolution of society to try to run the board.
@Noelene – Abbott is now saying “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” … Didn’t Gillard say something very much like that? People believed her, too.
Q: How do you know when a politician’s lying?
A: Their lips are moving.
Good Luck, Australia. You’re going to need it.
So when are elections due next in Australia?
The Next Northern Territory general election will be held on 25 August 2012
Elections to the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly will be held on Saturday, 20 October 2012 here Labor has been in charge for 11 years.
I don’t see national elections scheduled any time soon.
@ Bloke down the Pub, 8.42am
I do take your point, but it”s a little unfair on Jodie Foster. She’d have to do the voice like a badly blocked drain and mispronounce half the words in the English language to even make the audition. HRH the Prince of Wales could have probably emulated the guy on the other side with the mouth like a letterbox and Volkswagen doors for ears, in his younger days, but I don’t think so now..
Here is the video,”Gillard confronted about lies by voter (ABC News) ”
Notice how patronizing Gillard is, this woman is gone gone gone,
When I was there in the mid 90s, Australia seemed to be full of no BS, ‘put up or shut up’, ‘I can wrestle a croc with both arms tied behind my back, mate’ types, yet today whenever I see a post on the web about some crazy new law in a first world nation it almost always seems to be in Australia.
What happened?
Check out her jewelry. She’s got balls. Perhaps she is in denial. That would indicate some mental issues.
So, Australians did not really know who they were getting in Julia Gillard?
The problem is well described here:
(what would it be like if a guy didn’t really know the girl he was marrying)
You won’t be getting your money back but you may try to file for a divorce. Good luck.
What shocks me the most about the Aussie carbon tax is that as a percentage of global emissions, Australia could reduce their output to zero and it would still amount to “p*ssing into the wind”. Now I will admit that Gillard herself may have no personal experience with this phenomenon, but I’d think that the explanation would be self explanatory.
So when are the jackboots coming to enforce this no-tell law? (LAW???…WTF?). All the Aussies had to do was remember Gilliard was a political refugee from Wales.It was get out or get dead.We Canuckleheads are learning slowly that you never elect a politico not from your country.They are out of their own for a reason. Now I suppose the price of good Aussie beer will go through the roof!
The only pray Oz has now is complete,total,unblinkered gubermint reform.Good Luke. You are going to need it.
What is he talking about depending on the kindness of other nations for oil? That is business not kindness and are they, Australians, incapable of making a deal? Certainly if the government is in the way.
Any idiot with enough authority can destroy the economy of a nation. It takes real talent and work to not only sustain prosperity but to grow it.
Taxation is always camouflaged with governmental benevolence. But be careful what you wish for. That welfare/subsidy provided by big daddy may sound good if you don’t have what your neighbor has, but in the end, it is the preferred direct route to control over what you can or cannot do, say, or be.
Carbon taxes are worse than sharia law. Every man, woman, and child is covered under the carbon burka. And this tax will be as hard to remove as the real burka has been for women who live under sharia law and that suffocating black cloth.
Juraj:
“Green is the chlorophyll dye, made of carbon”
I would be afraid of physical harm done to me for uttering such rubish. What we do know about the chlorophyl molecule, however, is that you have never seen one 🙂
Steve C said @ July 2, 2012 at 10:02 am
Precisely. And Gillard’s opposition promised to “never, ever” introduce a consumption tax. John Howard claimed he had “a mandate” to introduce what he had promised to “never, ever” introduce.
The Git had a small business back then training computer users. He worked full-time and had two part-time contractors. Business was brisk. The government had free seminars for professionals to explain what we needed to do to comply with the new tax laws. The leader of the seminar The Git attended told us that the new tax regime was specifically designed to put 40% of small businesses out of business. In order to survive, we needed to work with our accountants. Those who, like The Git, were managing their own financials, would not survive because all the taxation accountants were fully booked.
A pox on all the politicians’ houses…
Pamela Gray said @ July 2, 2012 at 11:10 am
Gillard and her vegetables insist we will be much better off as a result of the new tax. If that is so, then presumably we would be even better off if the government took all of our income!
Matt said @ July 2, 2012 at 11:28 am
Ooooh, I think I have. It used to be one of Bob Brown’s brain cells 😉
Take the Test
July 1, 2012
——————————————————————————–
Today sees the introduction of the much hated Carbon Tax in Australia and this anonymous email, which perfectly captures the public mood, is bouncing around the country:
——————————————————————————–
THE TEST
This test only has one question, but it’s a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally. The test features a situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.
THE SITUATION
You are in Queensland , Brisbane to be specific.
There is chaos all around you caused by severe storms.
This is a flood of biblical proportions.
You are a photo-journalist working for the Courier Mail, and you’re caught in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless.
You’re trying to shoot career-making photos.
There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing into the water..
Nature is unleashing all its destructive fury.
THE TEST
Suddenly, you see a woman in the water.
She is fighting for her life, trying not to be taken down with the debris.
You move closer… Somehow, this woman looks familiar…
You suddenly realise who it is… It’s Julia Gillard! You notice that the raging waters are about to take her under forever.
You have two options:
1. You can save the life of Prime Minister Gillard; or
2. You can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, documenting the death of one of the country’s most powerful people!
THE QUESTION
Here’s the question, and please give an honest answer…
——————————————————————————–
Would you select high contrast colour film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?
Mark G-what happened is that nowhere in the world except New Zealand went as determinedly down the radical education reform pathway as Australia. Back in the late 1980s to early 1990s when Outcomes Based Education in its milder forms was stirring up controversies in the US, Australia’s various states went to Transformational Outcomes Based Education. You change values and practice life roles assuming future scenarios of a break from the past. Very little content or transmission of knowledge. It takes time and retirements but it has had its effect.
Now Australia is heavily involved with OECD’s Competency push as the purpose of education. That in turn ties into OECD’s Green Growth economics envisioned for the future. Which of course thinks that the carbon tax is just the beginning.
Education makes an unbelievably effective social, political, and economic weapon. It gets funding as a necessity. The accreditation agencies function as the pushers to use it as a weapon when they look at the K-12 schools, higher ed, and the colleges of ed. It’s change at a fundamental, unconscious level that makes emotion the dominant response. You tell students that everyone’s perspective is equally valid. So the well-founded logical and analytical opinion gets no more deference than someone’s off the top of their head belief. Then the idea that off the top of your head is equally valid goes into the workplace with its paper credential but little knowledge. There’s the desire for a well-paying job but little to market in return to your employer.
Then you get pressure on the government to provide for young people whose expectations for employment cannot be met. That expensive education process that made them politically reliable infantilized their ability to function independently and with real value at a private sector job.
So the government needs to take over more areas of the economy to provide the well-paying jobs that someone with Competencies is actually ready to do.
With slight variations that is Europe and the UK. Now coming to the US as part of the so-called Common Core national standards and its counterintuitive definitions of Career Ready and College Ready. When you put the US implementation all together you get the functions of Transformational Outcomes Based Education in both K-12 and higher ed.
Internationally competitive is based on assumptions about all countries going to a Green Economy planned and administered by UN agencies and the OECD.
Seriously.
Unfortunately, our very own President insisted his new medical care program was not a tax and that we needed this benevolent program for our individual and collective good as citizens of the US. Oops. Apparently it IS a tax and comes with a long list of controls.
Did you know that when debated, sharia law proponents will tell you that sharia law is in place to protect women? So it seems that Gillard and Obama share the same principles as sharia law proponents. Yes? And green liberals want this????
Even when CAGW is accepted as a total scam, as it already has been proven thus, the Australian government will never recind this tax.
When I said the same on a rugby bored(deliberate misspelling) that I frequent the Aussie “greenies” were not pleased. I don’t recall any of them voicing any disagreements, mind you.
HMM. Yet ANOTHER Tax. The Beatles had it sussed decades ago;
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
Don’t ask me what I want it for
If you don’t want to pay some more
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me.
Tonyb
Craig Emerson isn’t the first or only apparently shameless ALP / Oz pollie to wiggle about in a somewhat embarrassing way in public. His girlfriend of sorts (he was apparently married to somebody else at the time) from back in 2002 (she is now the current Oz Prime Minister) has done similar, as the following hastily put together rough and ready(ish) youtube shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNIctwcEQbc
@Tonyb
Politician
Jack Bruce & Pete Brown
Hey now baby, get into my big black car
Hey now baby, get into my big black car
I wanna just show you what my politics are.
I’m a political man and I practice what I preach
I’m a political man and I practice what I preach
So don’t deny me baby, not while you’re in my reach.
I support the left, though I’m leanin’, leanin’ to the right
I support the left, though I’m leanin’ to the right
But I’m just not there when it’s coming to a fight.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car
Hey now baby, get into my big black car
I wanna just show you what my politics are.
Olen says:
July 2, 2012 at 10:54 am
What is he talking about depending on the kindness of other nations for oil? That is business not kindness and are they, Australians, incapable of making a deal?
>>>>>>>
Pay attention to world politics. Every time Russia gets into a tiff with eastern Europe, they threaten to shut down the natural gas pipeline upon which most of eastern Europe depends. Energy is a strategic weapon, and those who grasp for power will not hesitate to twist the arms of those countries too stupid to ensure their own energy independance. Recall the oil shocks of the early 70’s when Arab countries attempted to blackmail the west into dropping support for Israel? I can provide more examples, but you should by now have the picture. The world energy market is not a “free market” when it comes to power plays, and those who grasp for power will not hesitate to strangle their opponents if the opportunity presents itself.
“kindness” is in fact, the correct term.
The Carbon Tax starts down under…
So did Obamacare.
Bald faced lying about what is a tax and what isn’t is de rigueur in liberal politics these days. It’s like that Monty Python skit about the dead parrot.
Lately I’ve been wondering if John Roberts’ decision was corrupt and misguided… or just farsighted. Maybe by clearly delineating the world’s biggest turkey as a tax, and spelling out why he was powerless to stop it, he’s doing the GOP a favor. Come next Thanksgiving, there’ll be a new chef in town, and we know that he already has fowl on the menu.
And just wait till this revenue is built into your tax base. Anyone who tries to trim it will be called the devil, Hitler, and heartless.
Bc Carbon tax went up too… Shame on the BC Liberals!
Tie me economy down sport
Tie me economy down
Wont be long till we’re through blue
Wont be long till we’re through
Taking the Ozzies for fools Jules
Taking the Ozzies for fools
-Rolf Optimist
The Aussies are still operating in the old ways of tax and spend. In The U.S. we have moved on to spend with borrowed money first and brow beat later for the tax vote as the right thing to do in saving the nation and be responsible. Anyone who speaks up to suggest a vote against the tax is then labeled a fringe fanatic. You have been warned.
I’m flabbergasted that a law can stand on some liberty so fundamental as publishing how much a new tax is increasing prices; well not in a place like Australia, I can see it in Syria, Uganda, Iran or China but Australia, Boggles the mind.
Kill it before it gets embedded in your system or else you’re all toast. Government never willingly gives up revenue once they realize it. And once they start handing out goodies with it … You’ll look like Greece before you can ever cut it. I just hope we can manage to get rid of our own tax turkey in Obamacare before too many start to get dependent on it.
Good luck, Aussies, it looks like you have the wrath of the public working for you. I just hope it’s enough to get the politicians working on your side.
When the economy of Australia topples, will it cause an economic tsunami that will swamp the rest of the world?
Enquiring minds want to know. (Hat tip to Ms. Julie Gillard for telegraphing UN intentions–it must be difficult to be the epicenter of such destruction.)
Larry Pickering says it all:
http://jacksoncapper.com/basecast/files/4F1M1SZSIHHWGIA4.jpg
Watch out moderator, that last cartoon was banned from facebook – try these:
http://www.andysrant.com/cartoons-by-larry-pickering/
The ALP wrecking Company Pty Ltd. “No economy is strong enough to withstand us!”
The Aussies never used to be a bunch of sitzpinklers, so how do these idiots keep getting elected?
Not one single government Minister will answer the question on how much the world’s temperature will be affected by this farce (IPPC: 4/1000th of a degree). They all dismiss the science except to parrot “it is settled” and “consensus.” The biggest joke is they keep saying that 100%, and sometimes a little more than that of the money collected, will be fed back to people and businesses affected. Yes you are reading that right a government claiming zero costs and losses in collecting and redistributing tax money! At the same time they are also increasing coal exports to China.
Gillard blew it, she should have taken a leaf out of Obama’s Play Book or better yet Clinton’s. ALWAYS make sure that when the fecal material hits the rotating blade it splatters THE OTHER PARTY! (Note how Obamacare doesn’t go into effect until AFTER the next election, neither does the food Safety Modernization Act or the wiping out of coal powered electrical generation.) Clinton was the absolute king of that maneuver. He signed off on the five banking laws that lead to the housing crisis, he ratified NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and he worked like the devil to get China into the WTO thus shipping US manufacturing overseas. The economic damage from those eight moves did not really hit until Bush was president so Bush gets all the blame not Clinton.
It was absolutely brilliant strategy on Clinton’s part, he is still a “Hero” because few connect the economic disaster to his Admin.
Clinton’s five banking laws (Just for _Jim)
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act 2000 (CDSs unregulated see link)
Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 wiped out depression era law, The McFadden Act of 1927, prohibiting interstate banking. (Too big to fail)
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 repealed The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 – Separating commercial banking from investment banking and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibiting bank holding companies headquartered in one state from acquiring a bank in another state.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 increased the powers and authority of the FDIC and allowed the FDIC to strengthen the fund by borrowing from the Treasury thus Allowing big banks to gobble up smaller banks more easily.
Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 and RTC Completion Act – loans to women and minorities, expands the existing affordable housing
Info from : List of Banking Laws
In my view, the carbon tax is a tool designed by leftists to redistribute wealth from the “North” (rich countries) to the ‘South” (underdeveloped countries). I think it’s also a way to get the North to use less resources so that the developing countries can use them at a lower cost (due to less demand from rich countries using less).
The UN, NGOs, policy-makers, and leftists have been trying for decades to finance development in the underdeveloped countries. I think they found their way.
Ah ha! Taking the mickey out of Craig Emerson has begun. Another great Aussie tradition. (h/t Andrew Bolt)
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/dancing_to_the_greens_tune/
Crocodile Dundee to the foreigner was a caricature of the bigger-than-life, independent, couldn’t- care-less, swaggering Aussie from a country that had the unlikely national anthem of Waltzing Matilda (they settled on an alternative “Advance Australia Fair” in 1982 and maybe things went sour from there!). Oh I know it was all in fun, but there is a reason for such a character to exist – I met a number of them travelling abroad.
But what have you guys done to yourselves? To vote in a socialist government these days is to buy into the ring-in-the-nose transnational, made in Europe, world plan of these dishonest, evil people. If you let these people-haters finish their work, you may find yourselves fighting over a limited number of billibongs and scared to boil your tea for the cost of the carbon. Don’t let this happen.
Kramer–but it doesn’t finance real development. It goes to enrich the reigning nomenklatura in each of those countries and the international oligarchs who steer business, I mean aid dollars, their way.
The modern-day international nomenklatura. We could even get nominations and the reasons someone qualified for such infamy. What did they want to do? How much did they take? Who else seems to have been involved?
oh please pompous git
Your tune has been played over and over,and been rebutted over and over.Howard sought a mandate for the GST,he just scraped through,but he made his intentions clear BEFORE the election.Both you and I know Abbott will get rid of the tax.Labor is being decimated mainly because of the tax,do you think Abbott will take the same path?Of course he pays lip service to AGW and has promised to cut our emissions by 5 percent without the tax,what politician doesn’t pay lip service to it?He has a touch of lefty about him,maternity allowance,global warming,environmental regulations,union control..he is a bit soft,I have a feeling that he will be the last politician I vote for if somebody like Turnbull claims the leadership because there will be nothing to choose from between the two parties..look what happened in the UK..got rid of the socialist,only to put another in his place after voting for a different party.Politicians will drive people to vote for radical parties because they insist on being seen as humanitarian,even if it is detrimental to the majority of the population.
That’s my rant for the day
You see, first they take your guns.
Then they take your money.
Then they take your freedom of speech.
Then they have control of you.
“Farewell and adieu to you fine Aussie people,
Farewell and adieu those that protest in vain,
For we’ve received info you’ve lost all your freedom,
And perhaps we shall never more see you again.”
U.S. citizens please take notice!
Those in the population with XX (sex) chromosome and of a certain age (and beyond) without a criminal record were given the ‘right’ to cast a legal, binding ballot in elections both national and local?
That’s all I’ve got; all I could logically come up with (AND I am prepared to defend it on a sociological if not scientific basis).
.
davidmhoffer says:
July 2, 2012 at 9:19 am
Noelene;
Abbott is now saying
“There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”
>>>>>>>>>
My question would be is Abbott simply taking advantage of the backlash against the carbon tax? Or does Abbott speak out against the CAGW meme as well? Beware politicians for what they don’t say as much as what they do say.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well David, before Tony Abbott became leader of the opposition he was hounded in the Aussie press for daring to say the science behind CAGW, was “Cr*p”.
He has since distanced himself from that previous stance once he became the coalition leader. However the sense is, that he still holds that view and will work diligently towards undoing much of the damage that that “cr*p” pseudoscience has caused.
Abbott has done what John Howard was afraid to do…. Abbott has engaged with the skeptics and the average Australians who have bravely stood up to the Socialist elites that are abusing our democracy, economy and nation……
….. The Labor party has been camouflage for Green ecofascism and global socialism and it has taken a minority Government to strip away the veneer and expose the Labor party as redundant, ineffectual and ideologically directionless…. It has become the plaything of the Greens party.
The backlash from the Australian voters…. and don’t forget, non-Aussies readers, that Voter turn out is compulsory in Oz, whether you do anything or not with your ballot is no body’s business but your own, just as long as it goes in the ballot box…. But what it does do is “Make those good men (and women) attentive to public affairs.”….. and this evil Labor Government will be swept away by an invigorated, engaged and annoyed Australian voting public…. and probably so will the Labor Party.
“Noelene says:
July 2, 2012 at 7:43 pm”
While you are correct, Howard took the GST to an election, 51% didn’t vote for the GST policy. Howard, like Gillard, secured power in the usual way politicians do. The GST did however replace other taxes, eventually anyway, it is unlike the New Zealand implementation which 15% is applied to EVERYTHING (With minor exceptions like female health care products etc).
Still, the carbon tax seems to be working to cool off this rock;
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/environment/weather/mercury-drops-to-61c-at-tuggeranong-20120703-21eay.html
And, even though there is a A$1.1m fine for any business stating costs have risen due to the carbon tax doesn’t appear to be having an effect on businesses stating exacly that. As I have stated before, Gillard will be gone well before the next election the start of the carbon tax and the ALP disasterous poll ratings will gaurantee that. Gillard won’t be too put of, Ban Ki Moon has her back, she’s got a nice cushy job lined up at the UN, looking after the poor and lifting people out of poverty. Bob Brown, ex-leader of the Greens who were used to help the ALP secure a minority lead Govn’t, resigned a couple of months ago. I suspect some of his alien mates told him to get out while the going was good.
Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!
“J.Hansford says:
July 2, 2012 at 8:43 pm”
Abbot is also on record stating that (Paraphrasing a bit) “Emission targets can be met with a simple tax”…so he’s in both camps, or whatever the flavour of the days is. Whatever happens, I seriously hope Abbott isn’t ditched for Turnbull. Turnbull is an ex-banker and is a keen supporter of a tax or ETS to solve this climate change “problem”.
Australia is going back to the Russia Stalin period with the ACC police with powers to walk in and go through your business, fine you if you put up prices blaming the carbon tax without without perfect records kept ? most people don’t know how to work it out . $1,1000,000 $60000,00 to $60000 e.g if you have a refrigeration business you cannot speak to another refrigeration business anything about the carbon tax $60,000 fine if you do.
The original intent of America was a nation with taxes as low as possible. So this can’t happen here………… right?
kramer says:
July 2, 2012 at 5:00 pm
In my view, the carbon tax is a tool designed by leftists to redistribute wealth from the “North” (rich countries) to the ‘South” (underdeveloped countries). I think it’s also a way to get the North to use less resources so that the developing countries can use them at a lower cost (due to less demand from rich countries using less).
The UN, NGOs, policy-makers, and leftists have been trying for decades to finance development in the underdeveloped countries. I think they found their way.
Sorry Kramer – you couldn’t be more wrong.
The poor and undeveloped shall remain so, it is already UN policy – the prize is control of the developed world and even if that tanks economically, the power shall ensure that the powerful and well connected will still get theirs – even though the common man and woman in the developed world will be equalised with the common man and woman in the undeveloped world.
We are cattle, at best, useful as productive animals, at worst useless eaters consuming “their” resources, in any event we are not “them” – we are expendable and without intrinsic value.
Poverty for ‘all’ – wealth, privledge, and unaccoutable power for the elite.
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
~Thomas Jefferson
Australia’s carbon tax won’t matter. Nobody outside of Oz will notice or care. Folks who liken Gillard to Margaret Thatcher should remember the “Poll Tax” that undid the Iron Lady.
ExWarmist,
You may like this:
“History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. … These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened.”
–Benjamin Franklin
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
~ Samuel Adams
Amino Acids in Meteorites says:
July 2, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Both quotes – excellent – well said. There is much to admire in the founding fathers of the Republic. Too bad that the Republic has strayed so far from it’s foundation. I hope for renewal of the Republic.
Gillard should have said…. There will be no Labor Party after the Government I lead.
“gallopingcamel says:
July 2, 2012 at 10:17 pm”
With the help of thousands rioting on the streets of London. I don’t see much rioting on the streets of Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne etc after the introduction of the carbon tax. I guess if there is ever a chance the carbon tax might affect the footy and cricket games or access to drive through KFC there be riots, but I don’t see that happening in Aus.
@ Noelene
Somehow I don’t think that less than 50% of the primary vote was a mandate. Perhaps your idea of a majority differs from mine. Here’s a reminder of what the Prime Miniature said:
As it happens, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. I took the opportunity upon my enforced retirement to build my world-famous House of Steel, saving $100,000 that I didn’t have to earn and pay tax on, or borrow and pay interest on. And do spare a thought for the many small and medium businesses that went out of business because of Liberal Party policy. Many lost their life savings.
You claim that the next minority Liberal government won’t introduce a carbon tax. That’s likely true. It will be an Eco Tax, or a Greenhouse Gas Tax, an Anything-but-a-carbon Tax.
ExWarmist said @ July 2, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Amen…
Gail Combs said @ July 2, 2012 at 4:58 pm
While not responsible for NAFTA and lending money to people who couldn’t afford the repayments, he was an enthusiastic supporter of these initiatives. Here he speaks to NAFTA:
And here to using taxpayers’ money to lend money to those too poor to repay:
Pompous Git: Your business failed because of the GST? Oh, please.
There must be lot of exemptions in the australian carbon tax. Does anybody know the exact title of the Australian Carbon Tax law or link to get the exact text. australia generates some 600 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year ( see autralian national communications to the UNFCCC) or almost 12 millions tons per week and at $23 that would $277 million per week. The European system is really very small compared to the Australian carbon tax. The european system tax only the carbon dioxide emitted above the Kyoto baseline. The price of carbon dioxide credits have dropped blow, $23 and companies could use other forms of credits such those from CDM and JI. In fact in its national communication Austrralia claims it is attaining its commitment to the Kyoto protocol without the carbon tax or any intervention.
for those that think food isnt going to go up, ie Liars crowd claim a dollar a week.
ha ha ha
when ALL farmers cop the Mandatory CFI and have to pay accountants, advisors and face inspections and bulk paperwork, to comply, lose land to balance their output etc etc I read part of it and its plain insane.
ABC shills are pushing it as hard as they can on the rural shows.
then add refrigeration fuel power fertiliser and all the middlemens costs rising too.
for the few who havent yet woken up, that will probably do it.
and once again
the LIAR was NOT elected at all! she did a deal with greens and suckered 3 independants who also will never be re elected to gang up to grab power.
such a pity we handed our guns back.
Richard from South Oz said @ July 3, 2012 at 5:09 am
I wrote that I wound my business up rather than fail. Not quite the same thing. The paid-for-by-government advice I received was that without competent accounting input, the business would fail. That advice was not available; all such experts were fully booked. In order to get up to speed with the new laws, I could have stopped earning, stopped touting for business, ceased the professional development needed, or the myriad other things one must do in order to remain in business.
It’s simply a matter of fact that remaining in business requires an increasing amount of time devoted to compliance with government regulations. Nowhere is this more apparent than in farming. None of the farms owned by farmers I know who have retired recently are owner operated. Their offspring figure it’s not worth the candle to work as an unpaid government lackey on red and green tape.
ozspeaksup said @ July 3, 2012 at 9:40 am
Oddly, this was reported on the ABC:
Nobody really knows what the Carbon Tax will do to businesses, jobs, the economy etc, it’s all speculation. Only time will tell if the idea is good or bad.
In the meantime, the political opportunists on both sides have cranked up the “pitchfork brigades” and set them loose. The media and the radio shockjocks have stirred up screeching fanatics who are giving exaggerated forecasts of what will happen. No one knows what will happen !! It’s all speculation.
And here’s the problem. The gullible public believe the opinions of these people to be facts. They are NOT facts, they are only speculation and opinions.
But the faceless forces in the political backrooms are using these speculations to curry up people’s fear. We’re all doomed if she stays in power, or we’re all doomed if he gets in power. Fear fear fear.
Australians need to see through all this hype (and brain washing), settle down, get on with life, and wait and see how it all pans out.
And most of all, they should stop believing everything politicians say. “They all lie at some stage of their career”.
Right. You have to pass the tax, and pay the tax, in order to really understand what’s in it.
After all, a new ALP low carbon economy could be the best thing. You might be eating all kinds of cake, made with sunshine and seabreezes.
cartoonmick said @ July 3, 2012 at 6:00 pm
You must be joking! Australian governments (of both political persuasions) have spent money, supposedly intended for individuals’ superannuation on retirement, not on much needed infrastructure, but boondoggles like the desalination plants Flim Flannery said were needed in this time of perpetual drought. Businesses can only tolerate a certain percentage of their income being purloined before deciding to call it quits. Those in government seem to believe that there is an endless supply of money to be had from those who generate wealth. Either that, or they are terminally stupid. Money taken from business is money they can’t use to generate jobs and wealth. Money taken from individuals is money they can’t spend purchasing goods and services.
That politicians lie is correct.
“ozspeaksup says:
July 3, 2012 at 9:40 am”
Well, Gillard was elected by her constituents as an MP. She just happend to be the leader of the ALP who struck a deal with the Greens and Independents and became the PM. Even though Howard took the GST to an election he had to “strike deals” when 51% of Australian voters didn’t want a GST.
Given the unusually hot weather on the US East Coast, it looks like the Administration may have missed a ‘golden’ opportunity to push Waxman-Markey again … Of course, a dead horse.
Hi there Pompous Git.
Me joking? no way. I’m convinced we don’t know what effect the Carbon Tax will have on our future.
We can speculate. We can chuck around facts. We can ignore facts. We can make assumptions based on some things, and not on others. We can pick and choose who we wish to believe and who we don’t want to believe. We can look at Government’s past performance, or lack of performance. Heck, we can even drink beer.
But none of that will give us an accurate account of how the future with Carbon Tax will pan out. No one can.
Only time will tell. And I’d rather rely on time to bring me the truth than politicians.
Oh, but it is! It protects them (with burkas, etc.) from being gang-raped by wandering packs of young(ish) males who treat every patch of exposed skin below the forehead as an open invitation by a slut — entirely understandably and justifiably and impunitively, of course.
Hi there cartoonmick.
Here’s my “speculation”. Barring a win on Tattslotto, my taxable income this year will be well below the income tax threshold. Nearly all manufactured goods in Tasmania come across the Bass Strait by boat. Freight charges have been increased to cope with the Carbon Tax despite Greg Combet lying through his teeth about this on local radio. The government has announced that I will be compensated through reduced income tax. But if I am not earning a taxable income, then it seems I will be out of pocket by whatever amount the Carbon Tax increases the cost of goods I purchase. Please note that while I grow almost all of the food we consume, rice and wheat are freighted in and therefore will cost more. It’s too cold to grow rice here and the wheat grown here is soft wheat and not suited to bread and pasta making.
You can call this “speculation” until you are blue in the face, but it remains an indubitable fact that The Git and Mrs Git will be out of pocket.