New Matilda has published an analysis of the Australian Carbon Tax (in
comparison with those overseas) by Sarah Lumley (Senior Honorary
Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment at the University
of Western Australia) and entitled "Is our carbon tax really the
biggest?":
http://newmatilda.com/2012/05/09/our-carbon-tax-really-biggest#comment-4\
0469
<
http://newmatilda.com/2012/05/09/our-carbon-tax-really-biggest#comment-\
40469> .
Key quotes: "If you turn on the news any night of the week, chances
are you'll hear Tony Abbott refer to Australia as home of the "the
world's biggest carbon tax
<
http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/LatestNews/PressReleases/tabid/86/articleT\
ype/ArticleView/articleId/8642/The-Carbon-Tax-100-Days-to-Go.aspx> ".
The Opposition leader hasn't provided any evidence for this claim,
but that hasn't stopped the media from reporting it. The ABC
<
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-21/australians-pay-highest-power-pri\
ces-says-study/3904024> , Yahoo
<
http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/australians-pay-highest-power-prices-0\
42535014.html> , Fairfax
<
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/power-bills-to-soar-on-ca\
rbon-tax-abbott-20120412-1wvff.html?skin=text-only> and News Ltd
<
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/tony-abbott-says-banks-mu\
st-pass-on-rate-cut/story-e6frfkur-1226343675070> have all run
Abbott's refrain without verification. But is it actually true?
… Australia needs to have the carbon debate, but let's try to
keep it honest — repetition does not make a statement true, and
misinformation does not advance a debate. If Tony Abbott does really
believe that Australia has "the world's biggest carbon tax", he
should have to prove it."
Professor Wendy Bacon (Head, Journalism Program, UTS) commented:
"This is an excellent article and shows up the weaknesses of
Australian journalism. It is one thing to quote sources saying things
that are demonstrably false but the journalism who has evidence can
simply put these in context. The article really takes the debate forward
and should be widely shared. It also shows why an outlet like New
Matilda is so important!!"
I posted the following germane comments about the article, the Gillard
Labor Carbon Tax and the highly deficient Australian climate change and
Carbon Tax debate:
"The Gillard Labor Carbon Tax is a gross perversion of the kind of
serious Carbon Tax such as that proposed by top climate scientist Dr
James Hansen of NASA's GISS that involves a meaningful tax on fossil
fuels at the mine gate with all receipts being given to citizens (see
James Hansen , "It's Possible To Avert The Climate Crisis",
Countercurrents, 29 November 2009:
http://www.countercurrents.org/hansen291109.htm
<
http://www.countercurrents.org/hansen291109.htm> ).
Thus consider the following reductio ad absurdum: Australia's
Domestic plus Exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in 2010 in million
tonnes of CO2-e (Mt CO2-e) was 578 (Domestic) + 803 (coal exports) + 34
(LNG exports) for a total of 1,415 Mt CO2-3 (this excludes GHG pollution
inherent in iron ore exports that totalled 293 Mt CO2-e in 2010) (see Dr
Gideon Polya, "2011 Climate Change Course":
https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course
<
https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course> )
. At $23 per tonne CO2-e the Carbon Tax receipts SHOULD be 1,414 Mt
CO2-e x $23/t CO2-e = $32,522 million = $32.5 billion annually but IN
REALITY receipts will only be about $10 billion pa of which about 90% is
given back to industrial and domestic consumers as price rise
compensation in what is known in Biochemistry as a "futile
cycle".
The pro-coal, pro-gas, anti-environment, climate criminal Gillard
Laboral (i.e. quasi-Liberal Labor) Government has no intention of
tackling climate change while pretending otherwise to a grossly
misinformed electorate (for detailed analysis of how Labor policy
INCREASES GHG pollution in 16 major areas see Dr Gideon Polya,
"Australian PM Julia Gillard's appalling record of climate
change inaction", Green Blog, 8 March 2012:
http://www.green-blog.org/2012/03/08/australian-pm-julia-gillards-appall\
ing-record-of-climate-change-inaction/
<
http://www.green-blog.org/2012/03/08/australian-pm-julia-gillards-appal\
ling-record-of-climate-change-inaction/> ).
I applaud Wendy Bacon's comments on "the weaknesses of
Australian journalism" re the "debate" and "why an
outlet like New Matilda is so important". Thus the taxpayer-funded
ABC (Australia's equivalent of the UK BBC) has an appalling record
of censorship, mal-reportage, lying by omission and lying by commission.
The taxpayer-funded ABC program Late Night Live and the taxpayer-,
Australian universities- and CSIRO-backed and Australian
academic–based web magazine The Conversation have both repeatedly
censored my informed, credentialed comments about horrendous,
war-related civilian deaths, and when I publicized this censorship both
blocked my posting of comments (see "Censorship by The
Conversation":
https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by
<
https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by>
; "Censorship by ABC Late Night Live":
https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/
<
https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/> ;
"ABC Censorship":
https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/
<
https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/> and Dr Gideon Polya,
"Australian Internet Censorship By Australian Government-Funded ABC
And Universities-Backed The Conversation", Countercurrents, 10 May
2012:
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100512.htm
<
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100512.htm> ).
I am thus, for example, blocked from commenting on the Carbon Tax on the
Australian taxpayer-funded ABC Late Night Live or on the Australian
taxpayer-funded The Conversation while being a much published, 5 decade
career scientist in an area intimately related to the problem of
man-made climate change and its solution."
Dr Gideon Polya. Melbourne.
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