Coalition plan to rescind carbon tax when elected to office
Photo inset: Protestors gather at St James (City) before march to Central
Photo: Paul S McAuley
On a day where clouds loomed over the city, many more dark clouds loomed over Julia Gillard, as thousands of protestors in the two biggest capital cities in the country, Sydney and Melbourne, gathered to show their opposition to the world's biggest carbon tax in front of a packed international media contingent.
This is the third anti-carbon tax rally that I have covered, and this one had the biggest turn out by far. The timing of the roll out of the tax falling on a Sunday was a major contributing factor. Many of the other rallies such as the big one in Canberra, were held midweek which prevented many working people from attending.
As usual, the protestors were made up of small business people, farmers, workers, and senior citizens. I have a lot to do with small business owners, so I can understand where they're coming from. As many as up to eight thousand people made their way into the city for the rally down to Central. Many speakers including;- The Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP, Craig Kelly MP, David Archibald (climate scientist) and representatives from business, farming, and scientific studies, were present.
Photo left: The Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP
Photo by: Paul S McAuley
ALMOST 18 months on, since the Gillard led labor government announced its intention to introduce a carbon tax, the majority of Australian voters are still dissatisfied with the lie Julia Gillard told to the general electorate, and the roll out of the carbon tax.
In August last year, I interviewed the federal labor member for Banks - Daryl Melham, and quizzed him on the carbon tax, (among other things), and pointed out the key issues that were raised by people from his electorate, whom I had surveyed prior to my interview with him. Daryl watered down suggestion that the long term affects of the carbon tax would cripple small business, hurt pensioners, and already battling workers and struggling families. He claimed that, "these allegations were the work of the opposition and media, trying to score a headline".
Right;- Craig Kelly MP
Below;- scenes from the march down Elizabeth St Sydney.
The general consensus from people at the march, was the uncertainty of commodity and utility prices, which is detrimental for business. The carbon price is expected to be around $23-$26 per tonne, compared to a world average of $15 per tonne. What we do know, is prices on electricity, gas and oil, will rise, and that price will be compounded, so consumers could end up paying their carbon price up to four times on a single item at the grocery store. The govt. has said they will compensate low income earners and legible households to cover the short fall of their carbon footprint, but this will only last one fiscal year, just enough time for people to get used to the carbon rebate by the time of the next federal general election.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott, has told the Australian media that "there will be no carbon tax under the govt. that I lead, except I mean it". Now whether you want to risk trusting another future leader is purely your own choice, but one thing is for sure, what one parliament can legislate is what another can de-legislate.
Only time will tell what the full impact of the carbon tax will be. For most of us, it won't really hit home until the bills start flowing in. In these already tough economic times, and with a second recession expected to hit Europe, everyone will be watching their money carefully in these tough times ahead. You know as they say;- "when the going gets tough, the tough get going".
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