The Carbon Price, aka the Carbon Tax, aka the Clean Energy Bill, aka the Great Big New Tax on Everything, is here. It’s through the House of Representatives and will likely pass the Senate, and then it will be L-A-W.
The opinion columns, the Twitterverse and Blogosphere, the airwaves, and the letters pages are full of real and confected outrage, and not a little congratulation and relief. The vituperation from opponents is astonishing in its spitefulness. Most ludicrous of all is the opposition’s complaint that the legislation was “rushed through” (thank you, Senator Abetz) – rarely has any policy been more widely debated.
Tony Abbot’s schoolyard “blood pledge” that he will repeal the legislation shows a breathtaking disregard for the interests of the business community, who need certainty above all else so they can make realistic investment decisions. The carbon pricing legislation and its related bills should offer that certainty, as well as the opportunity to build the sort of renewable energy industry that Australia and the world will need as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels over the coming decades, but the pettiness of the opposition removes that promise.
The opposition may well win the next election, and may well repeal the laws, but it will most likely take many years and many billions of dollars in compensation – time and money and effort that would be much better spent preparing ourselves for the inevitable move to a low carbon economy.
The strongest arguments against the legislation is the oft-repeated claim that the Prime Minister broke a promise in introducing it. Circumstances evolve, as John Howard found when he introduced his “never ever” GST. John Maynard Keynes once famously said “when the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Most opponents of the carbon price are consistent only in their inconsistency.
But they are right in one thing. This is not over yet. The words that have been spilled – and the blood that will be, if you listen to Tony Abbot – have hardly started to spew forth. It is ugly, and will remain so for some time.
