Carbon tax exposed as a corrupt fraud

THE Gillard Labor-Green-minority government's two-pronged strategy to destroy the Australian economy is all but finalised. The carbon-dioxide tax was bludgeoned through the senate yesterday morning and debate began in the house on the mining tax.

Both pieces of legislation stand as damning evidence of this government's abysmal lack of economic understanding. The government even left the announcement of its intention to have the carbon dioxide tax wrapped up by next week to the extremist Greens and the activist GetUp organisation to post on their websites. Senate government business manager Joe Ludwig seems to have been told as an afterthought. The carbon-dioxide tax is based on a lie and is fraudulent and corrupt. Before Labor senator Doug Cameron or Greens leader Bob Brown attempt to intimidate me by demanding yet another inquiry into the media and this newspaper, let me assure the vigilant lawyers that each of those damning words was used in the senate this week by well-informed Liberal senator Dr Alan Eggleston. Here is a little of what he said: "This legislation is based on a lie and is fraudulent in that, rather than reducing carbon emissions, published Treasury modelling shows such emissions will actually increase if this scheme is introduced. "Julia Gillard solemnly promised before the last election that there would never be a carbon tax under a government she led. "There is no doubt that Ms Gillard was elected on the basis of that statement because it allayed public concern about the proposed tax and emissions trading scheme ... and the amount that these measures would add to the cost of living for average people. "However, as we all know, once elected Ms Gillard broke her solemn promise to the Australian people to never introduce a carbon tax, the promise on which she was elected, and introduced a carbon tax in what must be the biggest deception in Australian political history." Senator Eggleston has been in the senate for 2 1/2 terms, or 10 years. As a physician, he practised in the Pilbara. He has the on-the-ground experience Labor MPs lack. He knows the challenges of living in regional Australia. He has watched the emergence of the FiFo workforce, he has seen the extraordinary development of the West Australian mining industry. He has first-hand knowledge of the problems of Aboriginal Australians. He understands the effects of the government's attack on the economy. He said the legislation was tainted by being the outcome of a lie and was fraudulent "because, according to Treasury modelling, this legislation will not result in a reduction of carbon emissions in Australia at all". "In fact,"he said, "on Treasury's published figures, emissions are predicted to rise from 2015." He said that under the Gillard scheme, rather than reducing emissions, polluters would be able to trade them off with carbon credits from a rainforest in Indonesia or some such place. "This is just nonsense and a further insult to the people of Australia," he said. "The losers from this legislation will be the Australian people and the only winners will be the merchant bankers who will make millions from trading carbon credits." Carbon emissions, by the Treasury's own figures, will increase from 578 megatonnes per annum in 2012 to 621 megatonnes per annum. Senator Eggleston told me yesterday that the government seemed oblivious to the global nature of the mining industry. He said he recalled the concerns held by the Japanese about the security of Australia as an iron-ore supplier during the '70s and how they developed an alternate source in Brazil - which has remained a major competitor ever since. He said he was warned by former Chinese ambassador Madame Fu Ying that China would develop alternate sources for its mineral needs and had done so in West Africa, using cheap Chinese labour. The miners would move, Senator Eggleston said, to places like China, the Gulf or Indonesia, where, ironically, electricity generation is much dirtier. On the other hand, Australian families and households will end up paying a carbon tax. Families will pay with a higher cost of living and - potentially - with their jobs. Green jobs, of course, are a complete joke. Shonks and fraudsters around the world have sucked up billions of dollars, leaving bankrupt companies and shattered investors in their wake. Senator Eggleston said that, by the federal government's own figures, three million Australian households would be worse off under the carbon tax. Analysis by the WA Treasury shows more than half of WA households would be worse off under a carbon tax as the government's supposed assistance won't fully compensate households. Australia's forgotten families are already struggling and the carbon tax will make a bad situation much worse. Three years ago, Senator Eggleston went to a conference on renewable energy in Beijing where he asked the Chinese, Japanese and Korean delegates whether or not their countries planned to have a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme. The answer he got was no. Last week, at CHOGM, he asked the Indians the same question and was told they would not be having a carbon tax, much less an emissions trading scheme. Not one of Australia's trading competitors have an economy-wide carbon tax or a price on carbon. Even Gillard, in Cannes for the G20, for all her lack of interest in economic and foreign affairs, must be aware of the intense global uncertainty and uneven economic performance around the world. There is no need for Australia - a country producing just over 1 per cent of world emissions - to risk introducing an emissions trading scheme that will cripple the effectiveness of our industries, increase the cost of consumer goods and put us out on a limb with no one to trade with once these expensive carbon credits are introduced, if in fact they are, in 2015. As the senator concluded: "I believe this is easily the most corrupt piece of legislation to have ever been brought before this parliament." It's hard to disagree.