Australian CARBON TAX 2011

Panellists: Bill Shorten, Assistant Treasurer; Malcolm Turnbull, Opposition communications spokesman; Piers Akerman, political columnist; Samah Hadid, UN youth representative; and Gretel Killeen, author, comedian and television personality.

The Government's decision to reverse an election pledge and introduce a carbon tax was, not surprisingly, the dominant topic of this spirited and highly combative Q&A. Mark Hayes set the tone by asking whether 'Ju-Liar' (the latest pet name given to Julia Gillard by her opponents) had ceded control of the country to Bob Brown and the Greens. Both Piers Akerman and Malcolm Turnbull seized on the broken promise aspect of the decision and Bill Shorten presented the first in a series of justifications of the Government's position. While Samah Hadid stressed the need for action to be taken on climate change, Gretel Killeen (with Bill sitting uncomfortably beside her) said nobody was surprised to learn that a politician had lied and castigated the Government for introducing its new policy in such a 'stupid' fashion. Eamon Andrews then challenged Malcolm (a consistent advocate of action to counter man-made climate change) over past comments criticising coalition policy on this matter. Malcolm remained critical of the Government's model but conceded all attempts to reduce carbon would have a cost. Mark Smith then raised the ghost of John Hewson's Fightback! campaign of 1993, asking Bill what effect the carbon tax would have on a birthday cake.

Deena Palethorpe changed the subject to multiculturalism and Muslim assimilation. Samah and Piers clashed over the position of younger Muslims in mainstream society while Malcolm and Bill stressed the need for diversity and tolerance. Terry Myers got no support from the panel for suggesting that aid money now sent to Indonesian schools should instead be diverted to New Zealand earthquake victims, although Piers noted that 'Australian values' was not on the Islamic school curriculum in Indonesia. Web questioner Sean Lawson, from Canberra, cited the words of some Liberal MPs and asked whether the party's 'big tent' now included racists and bigots. No it did not, said Malcolm.

There was an outbreak of bipartisanship when Malcolm Schyvens raised that Productivity Commission's report calling for a total overhaul of the disability sector and the establishment of a national disability insurance scheme, though neither Malcolm nor Bill were prepared at this stage to say how the $6.2 billion annual cost would be met. The show ended with 14-year-old Christopher Zac Gorrick asking to be convinced about which party to support, given he wanted a party that could manage the economy and had a social conscience. Malcolm and Bill both made a pitch but it was not clear whether Christopher had been convinced either way.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• qanda
• 2011
• ep04

[RagnorokLoki]

global warming is a scam

/watch?v=j97bzH7DFtg&feature=r­elated

[OrganizedReactions]

Carbon Tax.. what a joke! You are aware that every organic molecule contains carbon, which is what the human body is made from by nature... And WE have to pay tax for being MAN! Get outa of here!

[MRMILO57]

@RasPesher Australia is one of the top CO2 polluters per capita! That is what we all have been told to believe? Australia has some of the cleanest air on the planet! this is fact!!!

Wrong! wrong! wrong! Nuclear bass load power is the best alternative to coal, fact! Coal power will be around in 50 yrs!

Wind, Solar, Hydro, is not a reliable source for heavy industry and to feed the growing cities.

Sounds like you live in fairy land, all l hear from you is back to candle power!

[RasPesher]

@MRMILO57 There is no law that says that a person must consume CO2, so in theory the tax can be legally evaded. And that is the aim of the tax.

There are lots of alternative strategies: wind turbines, solar thermal power generation, solar water heaters, solar panels, home insulation, double glazing. As for energy storage there is currently T3 at Talbingo where water can be pumped up hill. As electric cars become more popular they too can be used to store energy for the grid.

[RasPesher]

@MrBITS101 What are you talking about? If it truely was a blank cheque, you would not be able to state its value!

Australia is one of the top CO2 polluters per capita. Even ahead of America and Canada. I suppose you think that the 3rd world nations should pay to clean up the mess made by the affluent nations (or should I say carbon effluent nations). What else is the 3rd world for, right?

[MRMILO57]

@RasPesher l understand what you are explaining. But do consider this, That is a minimum of 10% P/A, guaranteed to increase in the next 10-20 yrs to much higher levels, 10 yrs time, price increase will be P/A 25%. It gets worse!!! The Greenies want to make coal power bass load supply electricity so expensive, dirty solar panels will be the only choice! This is not good, very unreliable source of power supply and still developing technology! What l am saying, is we are being tricked

[RasPesher]

@MRMILO57 The sky is not going to fall down tomorrow nor when the carbon tax is implemented. In fact I don't think that many people will even notice the difference. If your existing electricity bill is $1200 per year, that would result in electricity costing an extra 10% or $120 per year. Relating that to a family income of $60 k/yr, that would be a cost of only 0.2% of that family income. Buggar all, and that's before any compensation from the government.

[RasPesher]

@AmayFels cont...

With natural cycles:

"Driven by temperature, oceans release and absorb CO2." - Galileo Movement

The Galileo Movement is a pack of climate change denialists but even they agree on this point.

So we can safely conclude that the increase in atmospheric CO2 is NOT natural.

[RasPesher]

@AmayFels A Carbon Tax is only pointless if you don't want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But that is the point, isn't it. It took nature 4.5 billion years to accumulate 280 ppmV of CO2 in the atmosphere. In the last 150years man has added an additional 111ppmV to the atmosphere. In that time man has also increased ocean acidity. Generally, natural cycles don't simultaneously increase ocean and atmospheric CO2 levels; the latest "cycle" is not natural (and is not a cycle).

[Keinlicht]

@AmayFels If this were true then 60 years ago glacier melt rates would have been the same.

Atmospheric CO2 would have been the same.

Ocean temperatures would have been.. guess what? THE SAME.

But they're not. Global warming is real, and urgent. And we're still doing shit fuck all about it.