Senator Joyce said today “It has now become apparent NSW Labor Treasurer Eric Roozendaal has a problem with Mr Rudd’s ETS because it will be a job destroying employment termination scheme. Ms Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland, also has a problem, because Queensland, the country’s largest coal exporting state, is hardly going to be assisted by a tax on coal.”
Both these people were at the Labor Party conference just a couple of days ago sitting alongside the culprits trying to introduce this ridiculous scheme. Why was it that neither Mr Roozendaal nor Ms Bligh thought it necessary to bring this up at the premier Labor Party event designed to ventilate issues of public concern, but both are willing to express their concerns to the Nations newspapers?
Which one is fair dinkum? Was the conference fair dinkum? Or are their concerns fair dinkum?
As Andrew Robb, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Emissions Trading Design says, the ETS is without friends.
It is completely irresponsible, in the middle of a global financial crisis, to be going forward with a scheme which will cut a swath of economic devastation through our Nation.
The ETS will include agriculture, because Ms Wong has ruled out Mr Turnbull’s amendments to exclude it. This will result in the price of food for Australian working families going through the roof.
It is offensive that as a result, people in Labor-held seats in areas such as the Illawarra, Hunter Valley and Central Queensland will be forced out of work because of an ideological gesture that will do nothing to change the climate, according to Senator Joyce.
If you get a chance today have a look outside the window at the clouds and the blue sky and ask yourself these questions.
Will Mr Rudd’s new Australian tax bring about a change to the temperature of the globe?
Is a working family, paying more at the check-out for sausages and mince, going to change the climate?
Is the prospect of an increase in the price of electricity in Australia, causing the cost of ironing the school uniform to go up, going to cause more frost on the lawn in winter?
Is the increased cost of vacuuming carpet in Australia going to save the Great Barrier Reef and end the drought?
Is Mr Rudd’s inspired solo crusade going to be anything more than an economic suicide note for a Nation already under immense financial stress?
After you’ve had a good look up at the sky above us, have a cup of tea and ask yourself if you think Mr Rudd’s tax, which he intends placing on all Australian families, is going to achieve anything for the world’s climate.
Mr Roozendaal and Ms Bligh should get on the phone to Ms Wong and Mr Rudd and suggest they each take a headache tablet, sip a cup of tea, have a good lie down and take this loaded gun away from the Australian economy, says Senator Joyce.
Mr Rudd perhaps should reflect on the comments from Mr Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN’s Climate Change Agency, who when asked on ABC radio recently whether it mattered if Australia arrived in Copenhagen in December with a scheme in place said “Quite honestly no”.
Perhaps then Mr Rudd might realise that apart from any lingering influence on the United States, he has no global influence of any real consequence at all.
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