- JoNova - https://joannenova.com.au -

Labor plan sends $35b in jobs and goods overseas. Carbon Tax is dumbest deal of The Century.

Cartoon: If $35b is paid for foreign carbon credits, $35b in Australian jobs will follow.

Where money goes, jobs follow.

Unbeknowst to 99% of Australians, we already have an emissions trading scheme.

Thank Malcolm Turnbull and Clive Palmer.

Soon, Australians are likely to be sending real money overseas and getting back paper certificates at prices set by the EU.

The legislation was snuck through just before Christmas 2015, buried under the name “Safeguard Mechanism”. It cost about $7m in the first year. But sits ticking, ready to blow-up into a billion-dollar monster any day. If Labor is elected, it won’t matter whether it has Senate control or not, the minister can just “press a button”, change the caps, and lo, the money will flow to foreigners for certificates based on intentions about atmospheric nullities — for emissions they might have made but didn’t. We’re paying to change the global weather. We could be the stupidest rich nation on Earth. But really, we’re just not paying attention.

The 35 billion dollars we will spend on these useless, fraudprone certificates is $35 billion we are taking out of the Australian labor market, or not spending on medicine, books or holidays in Bali. Angus Taylor, Minister for Energy, has noticed that this means $10b less tax will be paid too, which means less money for hospitals and schools.

There’s nothing wrong with payments to foreigners for real goods and services. But carbon credits buy us 0.0001C of theoretical cooling we don’t need and won’t be able to measure 100 years from now. It’s the dumbest deal Australia has ever made. Frausters and bankers will love it.

Tony Abbott won 90 seats on a promise to Axe The Carbon Tax in 2013. But, without any election, Australians still got exactly the carbon tax they voted overwhelmingly to stop. It’s one of the biggest lies in politics. It was brought in deceptively and is still being hidden by the Labor-lite unreformed Liberals.  Turnbull finally achieved what Rudd and Gillard tried to do for years, but strangely Turnbull didn’t want to brag about it. He knew the voters would hate it.

ALP carbon credits push risks $10bn tax loss

Simon Benson, The Australian

Company tax deductions for international carbon credits purchased to meet Labor’s climate change ambitions could punch a $10 billion hole in the federal budget over the next 10 years due to the potential loss of tax revenue.

Under Labor’s policy, 250 companies that have emission reduction obligations under an expanded safeguard mechanism would be allowed to purchase domestic and international carbon credits to offset those emissions they could not reduce.

The government claims a conservative estimate of a 25 per cent allowance for international credits based on a carbon price of between $70 and $145 by 2030 would require an estimated $35bn in credits to be purchased by Australian companies over the decade.

This would lead to a loss of tax revenue to the government of $10.5bn based on the current 30 per cent company tax rate that applies to the largest companies.

Independent modeling suggests the 45% emissions target of the Labor party will cost at least $264bn and as high as $542bn by 2030. The Liberal Party will “only” waste  $50 – $80b.

To be a broken record, there are cheaper carbon credits at home (thanks to Abbott666), and they’re only semi-worthless. At least we might improve our soil and add to our forests.

If the Liberals lose this election it’s because they killed off their own best weapon against the Labor Party. Lord help us if the Labor Party win.

Clive could only get my vote if he tells Australians why this tax exists and apologizes profusely, and grovelling for it.

9.5 out of 10 based on 84 ratings