Sneaky move to put secret Carbon Tax on fuel

[PassatB6]

Although the Gillard govt has said there will be no Carbon Tax on fuel for the average motorist, this is a complete con. There is a plan to do so under another name. In essence, the Carbon Tax will be an additional fuel excise.

The Greens have convinced the government to institute a 'Productivity Commission Inquiry' which will decide whether excise is to be levied on CARBON CONTENT of fuel. In addition they will examine whether ROAD USAGE CHARGES will also be instituted to discourage driving. Make no mistake this will happen.

So don't be fooled by the original announcement, there WILL be a Carbon Tax on fuel but through a Productivity Commission hearing and added through fuel excise. Sneaky bastards.

No tax on fuel, but Greens win Productivity Commission inquiry | The Australian

[wai]

You didn't really think that the government would pass up an opportunity to tax something

Even if (miracle of miracles) the Productivity Commission did not recommend a levy on the carbon content of fuel, those businesses that are taxed will simply pass their costs on. They would be derelict in their duty to their shareholders if they did not.

It does not matter how they do it, everyone is going to end up paying it, directly or indirectly. The government (either party) can then wring their hands and say that they excluded fuel, and it is those nasty companies that are charging the poor consumer.

What is most concerning is that a party that ends up with an absolutely minimal vote can hold such sway and essentially dictate to government how they will govern. It is one thing to "keep the bastards honest", and another thing altogether to dictate. Then again it is more a reflection on the weakness of the government to bow down to such dictates.

I have been watching a recording of British Army team climbing Mt Everest. There they told how climbers who could be rescued were literally left to die because other climbers were more interested in getting to the summit rather than help a fellow human being who had either collapsed or broken something. Here it was a case of Labor wanting to govern no matter what - in this case no matter what they had to inflict on those who voted for them.

And you know what, the next government is unlikely to remove these imposts. Once they get the taste for tax, they become addicted to it. We are also easily bought off with minimal promises of a few more dollars in the pocket.

[Mk3 AAA]

Let the people vote on it, simple.

[Stiggy_21]

Let the people vote on it, simple.

nah..... thats too easy.

[Drift]

Flavour of the month by alarmist agenda driven media outlets. Don't forget, mobile phones give you cancer, wait, no they don't, hang on, yes they do etc etc etc.

[Preen59]

What a load of wank.

This government is really getting under my skin and they pretty much have done since they got in. The Coalition made one fatal mistake of introducing work choices and it has cost this country dearly. They are in no way perfect but I feel that if they were still in, the country would be in much less of a mess than it is in now. And we definitely wouldn't have that scumbag bob brown dictating what is what.

[Blitzen]

The bloodnut wench that is in charge now, and her Greenie minions are going to be the downfall of this country... Australia is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live, and this will push us over the edge... With the way the Greenies are going, our mining industry will die in the next 20 years, and we will have unemployment rise and the price of living increase... I have no hope at all in this government... Climate change is nothing but a tax grab, and nothing more, and now it has been proven, and we will be all worse off for it... I wonder how many Gillard/Labor/Greens voters are deeply regreting thier votes now... Thanks for nothing!!

[PassatB6]

And some are more equal than others.......

THEY want to tax regular Australians out of their cars, but the Greens are still being chauffeur driven in their taxpayer-funded Comcars.

Senator Christine Milne, who accrued more than $7500 in Comcar expenses in the past 12 months, this week said ordinary people needed to "drive less and drive more efficiently".

The Greens are pushing for extra excise on petrol or to extend the carbon tax to fuel to curb motorists.

But the tough-on-driving approach did not appear to apply to Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young yesterday.

Her colleagues are also still using the Comcar chauffeur service, with Greens leader Bob Brown leaving taxpayers with the biggest bill of $20,600 for the past 12 months.

Senator Hanson-Young, who ran up $17,000 in Comcar expenses, gave no response when asked if she thought the Greens should give up their cars in light of Senator Milne's comments.




http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mor...-1226090191646

[Preen59]

Why am i not surprised. And they aren't even driving fuel efficient com cars!!

It's all a load of bull****.

[elephino]

I'm still trying to work out how big business is paying for this carbon tax, not the 'ordinary' australian. The business gets taxed, the business then passes on the cost of the tax to the customer (and likely with a little profit on top). Who's paying for this again? Please note that if the business didn't pass on the cost of the tax, they would more than likey go bust.

[wai]

I'm still trying to work out how big business is paying for this carbon tax, not the 'ordinary' australian. The business gets taxed, the business then passes on the cost of the tax to the customer (and likely with a little profit on top). Who's paying for this again? Please note that if the business didn't pass on the cost of the tax, they would more than likey go bust.

Exactly.

When the ETS comes in, businesses that are deemed to be polluters will be able to buy "phoney" carbon credits. The government has set a floor price of $15/tonne for this, so all a "big polluter" has to do is buy these credits and keep doing what they are doing.

The Carbon Tax and ETS will do so little that the computer modelling suggests temperature changes so small that there is no technology to actually measure such a small temperature change.

The sole purpose of a Carbon Tax and ETS is to let some people make money...at the expense of others.

On The Bolt Report over the weekend, there was a clip from Tim Flannery (former Australian of the Year). When asked how long it would be before we would see any change in temperatures if the whole world took such steps, his response was 100 years or 1000 years.

When Professor Ross Garnaut (professor of economics) was asked how much effect the adoption of a Carbon Tax and ETS would have on global temperatures, his response was little if any.

As I said, all this will do is make some people a lot of money at the expense of a whole lot of others.

The really sad thing is that already you see how some people can be bought off with the promise (is it really a promise) of a few dollars. Reminds me of a company I worked for on contract where they had a lunch where they ordered pizzas for everyone...except me as I was a contractor. So I went to the lunch room, heated up my lunch and was having it when all the leftovers were brought into the lunch room and I was told I could have anything in the boxes. Now there would have been some who would have been really happy at being offered that, only I almost told the person where to stick it. The only thing that stopped me was I needed the work.

Let's hope that people remember this come election time. My fear is that they have short memories.

[drewr]

My fear is that they have short memories.

My fear is people buy their bull**** they feed you via TV/Radio/General advertising...

It really does become blood boiling stuff, the feeling of utter helplessness and what seems to almost be betrayal is devastating.

[Corey_R]

Of course people have short memories.

Coal/oil power plants kill tens of thousands each year from the polition they put out, but it can't be measured easily so it's just ignored. The mining and drilling for coal and oil is also dangerous.

In 2010 we had the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (BP oil spill/Gulf of Mexico oil spill etc). 11 dead, 17 injured, 462 km of costline destroyed and 11,000 km² of ocean decimated affecting wildlife, fishing, tourism etc.

Yet people have forgotten that due to the fear mongering and sensationalism of the "Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster". And what was the impact of that? 0 deaths. Woo! Ok, so one of the workers died from a heart attack, and 2 workers had radiation burns from stepping in contaminated water.

Yet people in Australia are so anti-nuclear.
The irony of the Japanese nuclear accident is that the nuclear plant survived the earthquake and correctly shutdown, only to have the "oil burning backup generators" fail from the tidal wave! So if the backup generators were "portable" nuclear generators (such as the Toshiba or Hitachi products), then things would have been fine


Beyond this, coal power plants put out far more radiation into the environment (up to 100's of times) than similarly sized nuclear plants.
Fukushima was already schedule to be decommissioned as it was build in the 60's.
Modern nuclear power plants cannot meltdown
Modern nuclear power plants also don't need enriched uranium and therefore the fear of weapons-grade nuclear material poliferation is not warranted.
Modern nuclear power plants can recycle the fuel and use it over and over again.
The general publics uneducated "nuclear fear" is largely responsible for these old nuclear power plants still being in use, especially in countries such as the UK and USA, as the public perception has caused their governments to block the approval of new nuclear power plant construction to replace the old "generation 1 and 2" designs.
France has one of (the?) lowest carbon polution per capita than other countries in the developed world because they've constantly pursued and developed their nuclear energy program.
Renewable energy disasters have killed more people than ALL coal/oil and nuclear power disasters combined. Hydro... a single disaster in China in the 70's killed 171,000 people and left 11 million homeless.
Australia's hydro project - the Snowy Mountain River Scheme killed 112 workers during its construction, and today only provides 9% of NSW's energy. It has also caused the decimation of our river systems and therefore each year the scheme is forced to re-introduce more water supply into the rivers in an effort to restore the damage which they've caused.



I guess my HUGE FRUSTRATION over this entire "Carbon Tax" thing is that I've been doing my part for well over a decade now. I've been running fluro lights everywhere, I don't have a hot water heater (I use a tank-less natural gas), I've got thick & tinted glazing throughout, insulation in walls and roof, gas heating, all my appliances have been purchased with energy consultion taken into considering, including "80+ Gold" rated PSU's in my computers.

And yet, I will now be penalised because the GOVERNMENT HAS NOT DONE THEIR JOB AND OFFERED ME AN ALTERNATIVE TO BURNING COAL/OIL FROM MY ENERGY SUPPLIER!


Sorry... frustrated rant... though it's all true :/

[Frankenstrat]

Superb post, Corey, take a well-deserved ovation.

[Big_M]

Roll on election time, might be time for a change again.