You dropped it because you were in minority government and Abbott was racking you over the coals talking about a “big new tax”. If I remember, what’s his excuse?
‘Why the hell did we ever drop it?’: Labor should push for new carbon tax, ex-Treasury head says
Submitted 1 day ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to australia@aussie.zone
Comments
dellish@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Zagorath@aussie.zone 6 hours ago
The truth is they didn’t drop it, because a carbon tax was never a Labor policy. Both Rudd and Gillard presented emissions trading schemes to Parliament. The difference was in the details of those ETSes, with Rudd’s being estimated by his own treasury modelling to not result in any decrease in emissions until 2035. That’s why the Greens pushed back and later worked with Gillard to pass a much better ETS that actually showed a decrease from day one.
Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
I’m fairly ignorant about carbon taxes. How do they work roughly?
pupbiru@aussie.zone 14 hours ago
the government charges carbon emitters for their emissions - this is done in multiple ways, but the gist is big polluters (power generation, industrial, etc) are charged at the source and things like petrol is charged at the pump
as part of taxes, or whatever other means, the revenues from that tax is evenly distributed back to the population
this makes the cost of carbon-heavy products more expensive, making carbon neutral products cheaper relative to them
it also means that if you live a carbon neutral life, you’ll end up paying no tax, and just getting a nice payout to offset the slight extra you paid for eg green energy
JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 11 hours ago
Well, making necessities more expensive is difficult to sell no matter how it’s packaged. Like it or not, oil is used in everything from transporting food, to growing food, to medicine and supplements, to commuting for work, to home insulation and building, to iPhones and computers. Making those things more expensive, no matter the righteousness of the intention, hurts especially the working classes and the poor. Targeted subsidies to compensate them for their loss is impossible to fairly calibrate, and usually results in even greater political turmoil.
Carbon taxes can work if the country is wealthy and can afford the productivity loss (and the citizens are willing to give up that economic progress and wealth). For a nation like the UK, with massive economic problems, a growing underclass, astronomically high housing costs, and spiraling costs for necessities like food, a carbon tax is nothing other than a direct attack on the poor and political suicide.
Aussieiuszko@aussie.zone 12 hours ago
Let’s call it a Carbon Tariff, they’re so hot right now.
Tenderizer@aussie.zone 13 hours ago
A carbon tax is political suicide now, thanks Bandt.