Australia's carbon (dioxide) tax

[Hallo Alfie]

Scorched earth. How nice.

[Wildy]

Is it really scorched earth? Or are you complaining that it's unfair that Gillard has potentially managed to out manoeuvre Abbott?

[Hallo Alfie]

Scorched earth. She is not out manoeuvring Abbott, she is potentially out manoeuvring the desires of the Australian population who never ever voted for this tax and may wish it gone.

I would call that akin to scorched earth. Perhaps bastardisation is a better term.

What else could we come up with?

[Hallo Alfie]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226460256846

Stability:

PM, July 11 last year:

PM: The price ceiling is $20 more than the international price.
John Laws: Why?
PM: Well, we just thought for stability ...

PM, Hansard, September 13 last year:

THE bill also provides for a price cap and a price floor ... This will limit market volatility and reduce risk for businesses ...

PM, November 9 last year:

WELL, we have set a floor and cap so that there can be stability in pricing ... because people are making very long-term investments ...

Milne, Radio National Breakfast, July 4:

IF you allow the volatility that has occurred in Europe, you get kind of chaos in the system.

Reduced stability, increased volaitility and an act of economic and political bastardisation via a scorched earth policy.

How nice.

Worst PM ever.

[Wildy]

Originally Posted by A.A. Alfie

She is not out manoeuvring Abbott, she is potentially out manoeuvring the desires of the Australian population who never ever voted for this tax and may wish it gone.

Those two views are not mutually exclusive despite your attempt to make them so.

Also, if you're going to argue "desires of the Australian population" you should remember that a majority of the Australian population voted against the GST and we still got it.

Quote:

I would call that akin to scorched earth. Perhaps bastardisation is a better term.

Perhaps you should find out what scorched earth actually is before you try and use it as a comparison. Because right now it looks like you've discovered the term "scorched earth" and are trying to use it as often as you can to make yourself look smart.

[Hallo Alfie]

Bastardisation, it is then.

[bit_pattern]

Originally Posted by Wildy

Because right now it looks like you've discovered the term "scorched earth" and are trying to use it as often as you can to make yourself look smart.

I'm almost tempted to Google that phrase on Andrew Bolt's blog, see if it's had a recent airing...

[lionking]

Quoting Murdoch's rag?

Hilarious.

[Hallo Alfie]

Nice try boys, but wrong as usual.

[lionking]

Originally Posted by A.A. Alfie

Nice try boys, but wrong as usual.

Abbot's been trumped again. He's a pathetic politician, and almost certainly the worst opposition leader ever. Hewson looks Churchillian against him.

The tide is turning.

Anyway, Alfie, what about your prognostication that Gillard would not see out her term? Looking pretty shaky.

[Hallo Alfie]

Originally Posted by lionking

Anyway, Alfie, what about your prognostication that Gillard would not see out her term? Looking pretty shaky.

True sadly.

But I have been wrong before, and more than likely I will be wrong again.

Do you reckon with all this new spending and policy roll outs that the yabbie is going to call an early election? It certainly has that sort of feel to it.

[wombatwal]

Originally Posted by A.A. Alfie

True sadly.

But I have been wrong before, and more than likely I will be wrong again.

Do you reckon with all this new spending and policy roll outs that the yabbie is going to call an early election? It certainly has that sort of feel to it.

Not with the Government's very low numbers in the polls.
I think she is waiting for the LNP to implode with Tony Liar Abbott at the helm.
Ply the blowtorch to his belly and he will fold like a deck of cards.
He has not got the strength of Gillard.
Hopefully the media will start to ask the hard questions of Tony Liar Abbott and the LNP policies. They are very soft in Broadband, then of course there is their massive budget black hole. Labor is now getting one of those as well.

[Hallo Alfie]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-1226465079541

Quote:

Many are feeling the pinch of the 18.1 per cent price rise, attributed to the federal government's controversial carbon tax and the increasing cost of electricity infrastructure. But for some, it's more like a slap in the face.

Samaritans welfare group CEO Cec Shevels said 60 per cent of families approaching his organisation sought assistance with power bills.

More than 10 per cent could no longer afford to heat their homes during winter.

It seems like the compensation is not sufficient either, doesn't it?

[Hallo Alfie]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226465464984

Quote:

Energy Minister Martin Ferguson on Wednesday announced Labor had abandoned plans to pay some coal-fired power generators to shut down, under its so-called contract for closure program.

Mr Ferguson said the government could not be satisfied that entering into such arrangements would give value for money.

Senator Milne told reporters in Hobart on Wednesday the decision was a "breach of faith".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-0...ations/4243888

Quote:

Talks aimed at closing down some of the country's dirtiest power stations have collapsed, undermining a key element of the Federal Government's carbon tax package.

The Government had been negotiating contracts to close five high-polluting power generators - three of them in Victoria - as part of its plan to cut the nation's carbon emissions.

A sensible decision. But one wonders if this government has a clue about .... well anything really.

[bit_pattern]

"Many are feeling the pinch of the 18.1 per cent price rise, attributed to the federal government's controversial carbon tax "

Attributed by whom exactly? The Daily Hellegraph?

[Hallo Alfie]

Originally Posted by bit_pattern

"Many are feeling the pinch of the 18.1 per cent price rise, attributed to the federal government's controversial carbon tax and the increasing cost of electricity infrastructure."

Attributed by whom exactly? The Daily Hellegraph?

Nice snip.
The highlighted bit that you omitted, shows your dishonesty.

Did you even bother to read the article? I'm guessing not.

[Hallo Alfie]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-0...on-tax/4246100

Quote:

Coal-fired stations '$1b better off under carbon tax'


"If the objective of the carbon tax was to reduce greenhouse emissions and to discourage investment and high emission generation, you've got to believe it's been an abject failure," Frontier Economics managing director Danny Price told ABC Radio's AM program.

"It's a sick joke really on the environment."

Yep. The tax is useless by any measure.

Quote:

The buyout of dirty power stations would have slashed the nation's annual greenhouse emissions by up to 21 million tonnes - about 13 per cent of the 159 million tonnes needed to be cut to meet Australia's 2020 reduction target. These cuts could now be shifted on to the companies and councils that will pay the carbon price.

''It shifts the burden from the power generation sector to the broader economy,'' said Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute.

Could our federal government be more inept if they tried?