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Australia Repeals Carbon Tax
schwit1 notes that the Australian government has repealed a controversial carbon tax. After almost a decade of heated political debate, Australia has become the world's first developed nation to repeal carbon laws that put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. In a vote that could highlight the difficulty in implementing additional measures to reduce carbon emissions ahead of global climate talks next year in Paris, Australia's Senate on Wednesday voted 39-32 to repeal a politically divisive carbon emissions price that contributed to the fall from power of three Australian leaders since it was first suggested in 2007.
Unfortunately, the Australian federal government is a 100% owned subsidiary of the mining companies. Although the prime minister is a moron in his own right, he's only doing what his bosses tell him to do.
People will vote themselves entitlements at the expense of future generations. It's the fatal flaw of democracy.
I'm not sure it matters much anyways. Barring a total miracle like Rossi's unicorn reactor it seems we've already passed the point of no return. If you haven't had kids -- don't. As painful as that sounds.
Oh, I forgot to add - they *didnt* cut the $222 million school chaplaincy program. The agenda is clear, they are just religious luddites.
Cheer up and take heart in the fact that even in these tough times of austerity they did at least commit to buying 58 more Joint Strike Fighters for $12.4 billion. Cut down on sicence and buy more flying lemons, at least they have a sound strategy.
As part of the carbon tax package, income tax was reduced, particularly for low income earners as a kind of compensation for the increase in cost of living caused by the carbon tax. The new government is raising those income taxes again, despite promising not to raise taxes.
If a goverment needs to have tax, It is better to tax things that you want to discourage. The carbon tax was discouraging the emission of greenhouse gasses, an unnecessary and dangerous activity, simultaneously providing necessary revenue. Income tax discourages the earning of income.
As an Australia I sit completely on the opposite side to you then. Personally I am happy the carbon tax is gone and I will be even happier when the MRRT goes as well.
The thing I am disappointed about is that as a result of having a cross bench holding the balance of power in the senate all the spending associated with the carbon tax and the MRRT are not being repealed with them. So the tax base is now lower but the expenditure remains the same. That is more than disappointing, it's stupid.
Don't get me wrong. I am all for renewable energy and sustainable development. But the implementation of the ETS was fundamentally flawed as Australia is too small a market to operate effectively on its own. The sheer number of tax credits and handouts associated with the carbon tax meant it was broken before it even started. If it had been integrated (as opposed to price tied) to the European market there could be been some significant benefits but it wasn't.
And finally what are you talking about the cost of coal being lower than the cost of production? That is just so obviously stupid it's not worth commenting on. Glencore, BMA, BMC, & Rio are not charities! Do you seriously think they are going to produce coal at a loss? There are some mines where cost of production may be higher than a spot price at a given time. But that is because sometimes spot prices tank and mining is done on 20+year time horizons. While the price today may be marginally lower than cost of production it won't be over the effective life of mine.
But because such penalties impact all businesses in whatever country is collecting them, it won't really change things - because all of those businesses will simply pass along the new government-mandated increase in their overhead along in the form of higher prices.
However, if you believe in capitalism this creates a space for an aggressive innovator to come in with new reduced-energy practices/processes, and pass those savings onto consumers, causing the existing players to either likewise update their practices/processes to compete, or have them diminish/die. Such changes don't happen overnight however -- it could take many years for the selective pressure to bear.
Yaz
How come your neighbor New Zealand can do better?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Lets make sure that you tell the whole story here. The current government has increased taxes on the HIGHEST EARNERS in the country by 2% for income generated over $250,000. And this is for a period of 2 years. So your statement of "The new government is raising those income taxes again" is a complete and utter fallacy.
Do you happen to work at the Australia Institute?
I'm so sick of being told that because one party has a majority at one election they have 'a mandate' to follow through on every horrible plan they conceive.
1 - Not everybody voted for them.
2 - They aren't the only party sitting in parliament.
3 - Even if you DID vote for them AND live in one of their electorates you are still entitled to disagree with them on any issue you choose.
Let's not even go down the path of trying to separate the rhetoric of 'power poverty' from all the other contributing factors in power prices.
Did you get your $550 yet? Didn't think so.
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
Take a look at the first preference vote, Labor lost significantly more than the Liberals gained. To me that would imply that they won due to people voting out the previous government rather than voting for the current. (Anecdotally a large number of people I've spoken to have also said that they voted for this reason, and were to scared to vote for minor parties incase we got a hung parliment)
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