Just put this up on the site home page:

http://www.ozpolitic.com

First up, a big thank you to everyone who wrote to their local MP back in December 2010 when I put the word out (see below). At the time, the Labor party had signalled upcoming changes to their climate change strategy with a ‘review’.

Now that we have a temporary carbon tax written into law, it is time to send another email or letter to make it permanent. This needs to be done well before the next federal election, while the parties are still mulling over their strategy and before MPs go into ‘parrot mode’. Please make the following requests:

• that the carbon tax be made permanent rather than replacing it with a cap and trade system in 2015;
• that the carbon tax be applied to retail petrol sales.

Find your electorate here and follow the links for contact information:

http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/

Find your local representative in federal parliament here:

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/mi-alpha.asp

Please contact your senators also:

senators/homepages/index.asp

Green tax shift:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/green-tax-shift/green-tax-shift.html

Note that your correspondence will be ignored if it does not include your name and address.

Remember to contact Liberal and Greens candidates as well as the Labor candidates, especially if you are in a marginal seat. Although the Liberal party is currently opposed to both a tax and a trading scheme, there are powerful groups within the party lobbying for change. I suspect that going into (or coming out of) the next federal election, the Liberal party will have the more rational approach of supporting the carbon tax, while Labor and the Greens may stick with their policy of switching to a cap and trade scheme. We may end up in a situation of having the best policy, despite none of our parties actually wanting it, thus allowing them all to blame each other (in the short term at least – they will all want to take credit once the public accepts the tax).

Excluding one sector of the economy (eg retail petrol sales) undermines the effectiveness of the carbon tax, which relies on encouraging emissions reductions where it is cheapest. We miss cheap and easy opportunities to reduce petrol consumption while relying on more expensive options in other sectors to reach our emissions reduction targets.

Switching to a cap and trade scheme will introduce great uncertainty for individuals and businesses considering investing in emissions reduction. So far the trend overseas has been for emissions reductions to be far easier than expected, causing the price under cap and trade schemes to fall, thus eliminating the incentive for any further reductions. The uncertainty introduced will favour short term ‘quick fixes’ over well considered long term changes.

A cap and trade scheme will eliminate opportunities to reduce the GST, income tax and other unnecessary taxes using the revenue raised by the carbon tax. Furthermore, a cap and trade scheme creates a huge economic liability for our society, as the government will be forced to buy back permits at inflated prices (as has happened with commercial fishing licences for example).

I once handed out how to vote cards for them, but now I am trying to start my own party. I have too many issues with Greens policy. The carbon tax was kind of a standout for them. They went with mainstream economics while the major parties went with empty-headed populism.

it_is_the_light wrote on Jan 1^st, 2012 at 4:25pm:




really!!!! to me that just adds to the confusion.

look what we have right now.. 3 independents that actually are basically running the place..ridiculous.

what we NEED  is to make them more answerable...

how we do that I am not sure.. but to keep giving them our vote isnt the right way I dont think..

as it is FD you may well be in a position to start a new party...like Katter...but all it will do is split up the votes that are already out there..

and thats all well and good but we are not all in that position..

lets get one thing quite clear...

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH WHAT WE HAVE..

we are in a new age.. and WE WANT MORE SAY.

you say you are not happy with the way the greens are going....


shouldnt you and m yself be in a better position to get up them and stop them doing what they are getting away with???

guess this doesnt make a lot of sense..

but I am frustrated that they can get into POWER..by saying one thing.. then backing right away from that one thing..and doing either nothing or the complete reverse..


ITS WRONG.. I DONT CARE WHICH PARTY YOU BELONG TO ITS WRONG THAT WE ARE HOODWINKED...

AND THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT... for 4 years.....

good luck to you FD with a new party I dont have that privilege.. but dont you think my voice is just as important? and should be heard and not just at election time?..

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Fortunately we have preferential voting so this is not an issue. Except perhaps for some state elections that have compulsory optional preferential voting.

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That's why I am promoting voting by delegable proxy.

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I suspect we are not on the same side. The message that we are pissed off gets kind of lost is everyone is pissed off about something different.

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Obviously I think mine is more important or I would not have gone to the trouble of making this website and trying to start a new party.

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This sounds like Abu's take on 'rights'.

freediver wrote on Jan 1^st, 2012 at 11:57am:


.......before the lying witch gets voted out.

I support your theory on a tax as opposed to market mechanism.  Usually when something becomes owned by the market, it gets controlled by the biggest and is used to drive out the smallest.

As for retail petrol, I simply cant support that unless there is greater compensation.

Taxis have got to make money, and families need to commute.  Its already expensive enough and has enough taxes on it already, families cant take another one on it.

Taxis and public transport, although creating emmissions play a large role in society.

Unless you are prepared to do something about night time revellers, having less taxis isnt the answer.

This in turn could create a whole other social issue that is already bad enough.

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This is why I am suggesting carbon taxes rather than less taxis.

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You don't have to look to technology for alternatives. You don't even need to look for alternatives.

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The tax on petrol is not sufficient to cover the cost of road building and maintenance. Petrol taxes are also the most rational way to pay for roads, as they come closest to internalising the cost of the roads.

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How will it be a pain? What makes you think it will achieve nothing?

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You are approaching the problem the wrong way. There is no need to switch to alternatives yet. The presence of 'technological' alternatives is not a rational argument against carbon taxes on petrol.