Carbon price debate misses the point

5 May, 2011 by

Twisted logic or a circular argument?

There have been barrowloads of stories over the past few weeks about how various businesses are either supporting or opposing the carbon tax, when the “detail” is going to be released so that we can work out how much it’s going to cost, etc etc. But every time, the key point of this is missed. We hear Gillard and Combet committed to “acting on climate” but again, the next obvious question is always avoided.

What will a carbon tax or ETS in Australia actually do for the climate? The answer is, of course, nothing. Nothing at all. This isn’t tackling climate change, it’s spitting in a hurricane. Even if you believe the consensus science that man-made emissions are causing dangerous climate change, you cannot escape the point that anything Australia does alone will make not the slightest difference. Any reductions in emissions we make will be swamped thousands of times over by China and India.

So given that, Gillard and Combet rely on the “business certainty” line. Business needs “certainty” for a “transition to a low carbon economy”. Hmm. Will India and China follow our lead by moving to a “low carbon economy”? I don’t think so. The best business certainty would be achieved by abandoning a pointless price on carbon for the foreseeable future and using all the energy and time wasted on climate for something that will actually benefit Australians.

The media have got themselves bogged down in the detail and have lost sight of the bigger picture. The Sydney Morning Herald continues to print daily scare stories about the climate, no doubt to try to influence its readers to support “action on climate change”. But with a carbon tax or ETS in place in Australia, those scare stories would still be there, unchanged even by a fraction. What do we do then? Maybe the Herald will simply not print them, because, so the logic would go, we can’t be causing it… It’s an utterly ridiculous argument.

I guess we can wistfully look to Canada, where the climate sceptic Conservatives have won a majority government, and hope that the same thing happens here in 2013.

Filed Under: Climate

Voters oppose Labor's climate policy

4 May, 2011 by

Gillard's climate policy

Glad to return to blogging with a good news story. Unfortunately for you, Julia and Greg, the Australian public isn’t as stupid as you think it is, and have seen through your carbon tax for the pointless environmental gesture it is. Legislating about climate is like legislating about the number of electrons in a hydrogen atom. There’s one. There will always be one. Making a law that says there should be two won’t change anything. Ditto the climate.

VOTERS are overwhelmingly against Julia Gillard’s carbon tax after a sharp fall in support in the past two months among the young, families, women and even Labor supporters.

As Tony Abbott continues to campaign against the tax, the latest Newspoll survey reveals 60 per cent of voters are opposed to the government’s plan to put a price on carbon next year and only 30 per cent remain in favour.

Since the election last year, opposition to a carbon price has been rising and jumped after the Prime Minister announced in late February that she planned to introduce a carbon tax from July 1 next year ahead of a full emissions trading scheme in three to five years.

The latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian last weekend, shows that voters are not only against the carbon tax on a ratio of two-to-one, but that opposition to the plan is far more intense than the support for it. Of the 60 per cent opposed to the carbon tax, 39 per cent are “strongly against”, but of the 30 per cent for the plan only 12 per cent are “strongly in favour”.

The opposition to the plan has been intensifying since Ms Gillard’s February announcement she would break an election pledge and introduce a carbon tax, mirroring a fall in personal approval for the Prime Minister and Labor’s primary vote.

But Julia blunders on towards electoral oblivion. Good.

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.

Good luck with that.

Read it here.

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: ,
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