Piers Akerman
THE Rudd Labor Government’s newest program - the Carbon Reliance Abatement Program (CRAP) - makes no sense.
It is a complex form of taxation designed to enhance the moral vanity of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and those who believe Australia can make a difference to human-induced global warming.
Even if there were any evidence beyond the IPCC’s faulty modelling to demonstrate that humans are responsible for global warming - which the last decade’s weather would indicate has stalled or even reversed - it should be noted that Australia is responsible for approximately 1.3 per cent of the total anthropogenic global emissions.
The 18 nations ranked ahead of Australia (the European Union is shown as one) by CO2 emissions account for 89 per cent of the total.
Sydney University’s Professor Tom Hubble explained in 2005: “Natural climate change, of similar and greater size as that projected for anthropogenic greenhouse warming, has occurred many times during the last million years and as far as we can tell throughout the history of the planet.”
This is of no consequence to Environment Minister Penny Wong, who launched the Rudd Government’s Green Paper on emission trading yesterday and recommitted Labor to reducing Australia’s emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 - that is, cutting by slightly more than half our 1.3 per cent contribution of the globe’s emissions.
May we ask for what purpose, and at what price to the nation, are we to endure this?
What a remarkably apt description of the tax. Who thought of that acronym? When it comes to water, we don't need Noah's flood, what we need is a good management plan. Water recycling is an obvious thing to do. More Dams would be better too, seeing as they are the cheapest way of effectively providing water to large communities. Although the greens will deny it, dams are also the best way for the environment to water large numbers of people.
In terms or reducing carbon, I think Nuclear power would be the way to go. But then I don't think Carbon is the problem that is being made out, so I don't really care, except I don't want Rudd's CRAP.- ed.
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CarbonWatch - paying plenty to do nothing
Andrew Bolt
Such a cost, to tackle a warming that stopped a decade ago - and won’t be affected by whatever we do:
ELECTRICITY prices will jump 16 per cent and gas 9 per cent from day one of a carbon emissions trading scheme, it was revealed today.
The increases, which will spark tax breaks and compensation for lower and middle-income families, were detailed by the Rudd Government today.
The Government’s climate change Green Paper, released by Climate Change minister Penny Wong, says a $20-a-tonne carbon price will also cause a one-off 0.9 per cent jump in the rate of inflation.
And how ineffectual even this sacrifice will be. Not only is petrol effectively exempted from the scheme, by lowering the excise to compensative for any increase to the cost, but the other huge emitters get compensation, too:
Existing coal-fired power stations have been promised direct assistance to ensure their viability.
The compensation for petrol does have an end date, however:
CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong today warned that the pledge to offset increases in petrol prices as a result of the carbon trading scheme with a dollar-for-dollar reduction in excise only extends to 2013.
Why 2013? Because the Government can then reject allegations that a vote for Rudd in 2010 is a vote for higher petrol prices. No, the Government will say, the higher petrol prices will happen in the term after that. And when the next election comes around, it will repeat the circus to avoid the slogan: “A vote for Gillard is a vote for higher petrol prices.”
Which means it’s highly unlikely that petrol, responsible for 15 per cent of our emissions will ever be hit with a real green tax. Which in turn means the Rudd Government will have no chance at all of reaching its goal of cutting emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.
Not when it has:
- effectively removed petrol from its emissions trading scheme.
- agreed to compensate brown coal power stations to keep them running
- banned nuclear power
- no plans to build more hydro schemes
- no proved “clean coal” technology for coal-fired plants
- record immigration
- no hope of reaching its 20 per cent renewable power by 2020, which will essentially require us building the equivalent of one wind generator every 120 metres between Perth and Sydney*, and in just 12 years. (And still keep a dirty generator for backup for when the wind don’t blow.)
FuelWatch was the tiddler compared to CarbonWatch.
(* Based on a windfarm producing 20 per cent of an installed capacity of 2 megawatts a year; Australia’s power use reaching 60 megawatts in 2020; no new hydro, geothermal or solar; and optimum wind conditions the entire width of Australia.)
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Scientists discover contender for brightest star
SCIENTISTS using NASA's Spitzer Telescope have discovered a star that could be our galaxy's brightest.
The Peony Nebula star, shining 3.2 million times as the sun, could be the brightest light if it was placed at equal distance with the current record holder, the Eta Carinae.
The Peony Nebula is 26,093 light-years away. The Eta Carinae is only 7500 light-years away and is thought to shine 4.7 million times brighter than the sun.
As there is some uncertainty around the luminosity estimates for the Peony as well as the Eta Carinae, it's possible that the Peony could be the brightest.
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Morris Iemma told he's destroyed Labor power sale or no
By Joe Hildebrand
LABOR party operatives have warned Premier Morris Iemma that whether he pushes ahead with the $25 billion power sale or not, his leadership will destroy the party.
Sources close to the leadership of the ALP have said Mr Iemma was consumed by hatred and letting the party burn by refusing to step down.
The warning came as even key supporters of Mr Iemma dismissed a plan to split the ALP's dominant Right faction, in an effort to protect the Premier, as bizarre.
Powerbrokers on both sides of the war that has cleaved the Labor Party in two had hoped that a long-awaited face-to-face meeting of Mr Iemma and party general secretary Karl Bitar would bring a truce.
However, unbeknown to Mr Bitar, the Premier the same day planted a declaration via the media that he would fight to the bitter end in a showdown with the party.
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Carmel Tebbutt says family more important than Iemma's job
By Clare Masters, Political Reporter
THE woman most likely to be the first female premier of NSW has broken her silence to say that her family is more important to her than the ALP leadership.
Despite being touted as a prime candidate to take over from Morris Iemma - second only to tearaway minister Nathan Rees - Carmel Tebbutt said she was not staking a claim for the top job.
"I've made it very clear I am not interested in running for premier and there is no vacancy for premier. My support lies with Morris," she told The Daily Telegraph in her first interview since ALP chiefs went to war with the Premier.
But in comments sure to spark a new round of speculation, Ms Tebbutt has flagged a return to the front bench.
"I miss being a minister and I may well consider at some stage coming back," she said. -Carmel was a failure in the Education Ministry, so she has all the credentials needed to fail as premier too. - ed.
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No one wants a moral chocolate
Andrew Bolt
The whole idea of chocolate is that it’s a guilty pleasure. Which is why this is very, very wrong:
Our Climate Change Chocolate bar is meant to educate while tasting great. It comes in a wrapper with 15 tips for lightening your environmental impact.
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Sue for more warming instead
Andrew Bolt
The law suit looked hot to trot in February:
A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Chukchi Sea sued oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community’s existence.
But it’s chances have chilled in July
Normally, Anchorage has 14 or 15 days in the summer that reach the 70-degree mark.. This year, there have been two. And the city didn’t see 70 at all until July 2… And in June, temperatures fell below the average high on 24 of 30 days.
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Carbon dioxide may actually freeze us
Andrew Bolt
Pardon? Professor George Chilingar and Leonid Khilyuk of the University of Southern California, and Oleg Sorokhtin of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, now produce the ultimate sceptic’s argument:
The writers investigated the effect of CO2 emission on the temperature of atmosphere. Computations based on the adiabatic theory of greenhouse effect show that increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere results in cooling rather than warming of the Earth’s atmosphere.
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Too windy for nuclear power
Andrew Bolt
Guess which country will get richer faster?
China wants to have 100 of Westinghouse Electric Co.’s nuclear reactors in operation or under construction by 2020 ....
Or:
(Kevin Rudd’s renewable enegry policy) will essentially require us building the equivalent of one wind generator every 120 metres between Perth and Sydney, and in just 12 years.
China will build eight nuclear reactors a year for the next decade. We’re so superstitious we won’t even discuss it, and will build useless windfarms instead.
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You pay for their panic
Andrew Bolt
The price of climate panic has been worked out:
FAMILIES will be hit with a $220 rise in power bills from 2010 under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s carbon emissions trading scheme.
And price rises will filter through to every sector of the economy, pushing up inflation by almost 1 per cent.
Middle Australia, which carried the Rudd Government into office, will pay the biggest price in the climate change fight.
Be aware, of course, that this is just the down-payment. As the Government restricts the licences to gas, the costs rocket up. And then there’s all those “solutions” you must subsidise.
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Rudd was against a surge before he was for it
Andrew Bolt
In opposition, Kevin Rudd was against a surge:
We believe the strategy being pursued by and supported by Mr Howard is heading in the wrong direction and that’s why we have argued consistently against that surge strategy…
But in government, Kevin Rudd’s defence minister is for one:
A MILITARY “surge” in Afghanistan, similar to that in Iraq, combined with more urgent diplomatic engagement with Pakistan, is required, if NATO-led forces want victory there, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said… “First of all, we’re going to need more troops, substantially more troops — sort of a surge, if you like...”
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Wong spins wildly
Andrew Bolt
None of the Rudd Government’s global warming fanatics ever thought of calling carbon dioxide “carbon pollution” until this month. But check how madly Climate Change Minister Penny Wong now uses this deceitful phrase - 36 times in just one appearance yesterday at the National Press Club.
A search of Wong’s website and of Google News reveals no mention of this phrase by Wong before last week. Can she explain when the decision was taken to refer to “carbon pollution”, and why? Does this make every animal on earth a polluter, too?
As you read this post, please refrain from exhaling your pollution.
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Two-year-old girl contracted STD
By Alana Buckley-Carr
POLICE are investigating the sexual abuse of a two-year-old Aboriginal girl who contracted gonorrhea.
The sexually transmitted infection was discovered after the child's mother noticed a discharge in her daughter's nappy early last month.
But police in Western Australia's Kimberley region said yesterday that finding the perpetrator would be extremely difficult, because it was not known when the girl may have been assaulted or who had the opportunity to take advantage of her.
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Home and Away actor jailed for rape
By Shelley Hadfield
A SMALL-time actor who played a trooper in Ned Kelly will see the other side of justice today when he is jailed for rape.
Michael McLindon, 30, has been warned by a Melbourne judge to expect a significant jail term for spiking a woman's drink and then raping her.
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Pope addresses pligrims in Sydney for World Youth Day
POPE Benedict XVI has praised the Former Howard Government's work with Aboriginal Australia during his first public address in Sydney this morning to the assembled faithful on the city's harbour foreshore to celebrate World Youth Day.
He encouraged those hoping Australia could claim its first saint in Mary MacKillop.
The Pope said that Aboriginal "ancient heritage'' forms an essential part of the landscape of modern Australia.
"Thanks to the Australian Government's courageous decision to acknowledge the injustices committed against the indigenous peoples in the past, concrete steps are now being taken to achieve reconciliation based on mutual respect,'' he said. -Sadly those concrete steps have not been followed by Rudd - ed.
"Rightly, you are seeking to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians regarding life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
"This example of reconciliation offers hope to peoples all over the world who long to see their rights affirmed and their contribution to society acknowledged and promoted.''
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Carbon initiatives to boost electricity and gas bills
The Rudd government’s attempt to tackle climate change will result in electricity bills being boosted by 16 percent and gas bills by 9 percent, according to forecasts.
While the government will attempt to shield the price increases from climate initiatives by spending billions to protect the low-paid – the protection can’t last forever.
And in regard to the planned petrol excise cut, climate change Minister Penny Wong has said that this plan is also limited – the protection will last for three years.
Senator Wong wants to encourage the use of smaller cars and alternate means of transport to reduce the impact of carbon producing goods and services.
“Under this scheme we are effectively giving Australian motorists five years notice (from now) before there's a likelihood that the price impact of carbon pollution reduction scheme will be felt on petrol” she said.
"This ship of fools the Australian Labor Party have become known as have a studded record when it comes to financial creditability , the last Labor government left us with a $96Billion dollar debt which had to be cleaned up by the libs. NSW under Labor are responsible for the cross city tunnel fiasco, the public transport rorts and management, and the poor management of our hospital system. To name just some.
Reminds me of the old man in Queensland.
While stitching up the hand of a 75 year old Queensland
farmer, who got cut on a gate while working cattle, the rural doctor struck up
a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Kevin 07 and his appointment to Prime Minister of Australia.
"Well, ya know," drawled the old farmer, "this Rudd fella is what they call
a fencepost turtle."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a fencepost
turtle was.
The old farmer said, "When you're driving along a country road and you come
across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top,
that's called a fencepost turtle."
The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to
explain, "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he definitely doesn't
belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is
up there, and you just gotta wonder what kind of dill put him up there in the first place!''
The new tax that Labor is going to introduce will become the biggest joke any political party has ever played on the Australian people.
Phillip Motbey, Bomaderry"
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