CO2 Tax Australia – Gillard’s $650 Billion Giveaway

Posted on Fri 08/26/2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Andrew Bolt

The Gillard Government can’t possibly be serious:

AUSTRALIAN businesses and households will have to send about $650 billion overseas between 2020 and 2050 to buy permission to keep some of our coal-fired power stations and other industries operating.

This staggering cost is indicated in the fine print of the Treasury modelling of the Government’s carbon dioxide tax and subsequent emissions trading scheme.

The $650 billion will be to buy “permits” to emit CO2.

The permits will be bought from sellers that don’t yet exist, or in markets that have yet to be formed, although the Government expects – hopes – they will develop over the next few years.

But this week it was reported that European police agency Europol had revealed a fraudulent trade in these so-called carbon credits in the only serious market that does operate – for the European Union – was far more widespread than previously thought and could have cost EU taxpayers up to €5 billion ($7 billion) in lost revenue in just 18 months…

Even without any rorting, the impact on the economy of this part of the scheme will be exactly like taking $650 billion and shredding it.

That will be throwing away nearly $30,000 for every Australian, about $120,000 for a family of four.

These wasted funds could build 15 National Broadband Networks. They could build a fast train network linking every capital city five or six times over.

UPDATE

The tempation for business just to buy cheap overseas without looking too closely at the offset they’re buying will be enormous:

PREDICTIONS that the Australian carbon price will rise once emissions trading starts in 2015 have been challenged by an analysis that found the price would slump dramatically because of an influx of cheap international permits.

How many of those cheap permits will be issued by Nigeria?

We won’t even get a foreign aid offset:

Mr Combet ruled out using revenue from a carbon price to meet Australia’s international commitments to help poorer countries tackle climate change.

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Andrew Bolt’s columns appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Advertiser. He runs the most-read political blog in Australia and hosts Channel 10’s The Bolt Report each Sunday at 10am. He is also heard from Monday to Friday at 8am on the breakfast show of radio station MTR 1377, and his book Still Not Sorry remains very widely read.

Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog . http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/