So a carbon tax is about decreasing carbon pollution. Yet its subsidies will keep big polluting industries afloat.
But if you want a carbon tax, and truly believe that it will affect global pollution and change the climate, then you shouldn’t be disappointed to see big polluting industries such as manufacturing disappear. You should be unfazed at the potential of massive job losses. After all, your claim is that so many ‘green’ jobs will be created.
So why is the Australian govt so keen to bolster already declining industries? Especially when subsidies don’t work in the long term if at all. They are a crutch and don’t promote productivity. All they do is create a reliance on further govt subsidies.
Once again the govt’s policy defeats the purpose for which it is intended. Do they think anything through??
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No, apparently they do not. But the policies of this government are not a pragmatic attempt to address social and economic problems, such as one would expect from them. They are the application to pressing problems of the nearest relevant policy by-product of left wing Socialist ideology.
The carbon tax is nothing short of a national disgrace, as is the current Prime Minister. The vast majority of coal mined in Australia is exported to China and India. Take the NSW Hunter region – about 25% is used in the power stations concentrated in the region, and the rest is exported. There are no emissions control requirements placed on those foreign governments as a condition for buying Australian coal. The government has a desire only to increase the amount it sells to them, however, so that it can – to quote Christine Milne – “redistribute” the proceeds to all Australians. Taxing coal-fired power stations in Australia (ostensibly to reduce carbon dioxide emissions) whilst at the same time encouraging further investment in coal mining for export is nothing short of rampant hypocrisy. Carbon dioxide is no respecter of national frontiers!
I am not with you all the way on subsidies. The government is not there to improve business productivity, despite what it always bangs on about in the media. The best way to increase productivity is actually to remove the government. The government is there to look after its citizens. Its influence in the economy will always be to ensure that Australians can work for a decent wage. If this means subsidies, I am not immediately against them. Even if they retard productivity. Australia’s manufacturing industry has declined sharply in recent decades, but to phase it out completely on the grounds that it is not profitable I believe would be a mistake. A nation loses more than productivity if it can no longer make stuff. It becomes dependant on those who can. Anyone want to be a Chinese Vassal state? Didn’t think so…
LB
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