Gillard's (and The Greens') Carbon Tax: ridiculous? Yes! And deceitful. And crippling.

I know. It's a political post. On the proposed carbon tax. This post is in a different vein to previous posts. I hope it helps clarify the seriousness of this proposed absurd legislation and what it would do to us and our country. Please read it.

Professor Henry Ergas on the carbon tax

Alan Jones speaks to Professor Henry Ergas about the carbon tax on radio 2GB.

Monday, 19 September 2011

Professor Henry Ergas is a regulatory economist and I will not list his CV here; it’s in the interview here (you may need to copy and paste the address if the link hasn't published properly: http://www.2gb.com/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=10154

Please note: If you listen to the interview (14:30 min) the intro uses strong language (not coarse language), but listen past that. The interview is very telling and disturbing.

The following is my summary of the interview.

There are 963 pages of legislation (and 1100+ pages with addenda). Buried in there are some very troubling intentions and this government needs to be told that we do not want this carbon tax!

A carbon tax will do nothing to halt emissions. Jobs will be at risk with a tax that will do nothing, even if you believe GW is anthropogenic.

We are told by the Gillard government that the tax is a market-based solution. It is a government tax, not a market-based solution! Even after the tax, emissions will continue to rise.

If this becomes law, we will buying the carbon permits for $650 million dollars - from overseas!

The legislation is deliberately structured so that future removal of this legislation will cost enormously. Mark Dreyfus, the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change (on the Carbon Tax side!), says that repeal would mean the Commonwealth would have to seize a “valuable asset” (carbon permits will be called personal property) from the population, and therefore have to pay compensation “on just terms” (remember the movie The Castle?).

No other country’s government has ever treated pollution permits as conventional property. This is so that, in those countries in future, revision of the legislation can be done without stagnating the country economically. Australia’s Labor legislation has been deliberately worded so that any changes in future would automatically require billions to be paid to the people.

Further, if a new government rejected the emission reduction recommendations made by the Carbon Regulator, they would then have to secure a majority in parliament for a new target, otherwise the target is automatically set to 10% reduction, regardless of the damage that might do to the economy. The government can’t even replace the Carbon Regulator because of the way the legislation is set up.

It even undermines the democratic process. The majority of people don’t want the tax, they elect someone else to get rid of it, and then that new government finds themselves stuck, having to pay billions back to the people. This will only serve to get them in turn kicked out of office and put Labor back in.

THIS IS BEING PUSHED BY LABOR AND THE GREENS WITHOUT ANY AGREEMENT WORLDWIDE ON EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS! Australia could be locked in to these diabolical costs even if the rest of the world decides to drop emissions targets.

Prof Ergas: “The only justification for having a carbon tax would be if it would solve or addresses the problem of GW, but if it won’t do that, then all it really is is an extremely inefficient and economically costly tax.” (My emphasis.)

60% of our permits would come from overseas, so we’re only helping other countries create their cleaner future. But will it even help those countries do that? Treasury has said the countries we’ll be buying from include countries like Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. These countries are rife with corruption and inefficiency, and it is likely that our money will do everything but help the environment.

This proposed legislation will affect the economy and Australians for decades to come.

Jasmine and Zoe: faith in spite of circumstances.

Crisis times reveal to us where our faith is at. On October 20th 2007, Jasmine was born to Mel and I as a premature baby before passing away in Mel's arms. She was at 17 weeks' gestation. I say she was premature and not miscarried because she was delivered alive. When Zoe stopped breathing and had a 25-minute fit in mid-February 2010, we weren't sure how mentally fit she would be if she came out of it. Those two situations are complete stories in themselves, and they were extremely difficult to walk through. Yet from those situations came an increased faith that we carry today.

Most people have some sort of faith and, of those who do there are, broadly speaking, two distinct types of faith. The difference between the two types is our conviction. Abram carried conviction.

Genesis 15 tells us that Abram had no children. This meant no heir. Everything of Abram's for which he'd spent his life working - flocks, herds, servants, property - would pass to a man outside his bloodline, possibly to his servant. He asked God about this when God's word came to him. God took him outside at night and showed him the stars, saying his descendants will be as numerous as they. Then Genesis 15:6 says Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abram's belief (faith) came out of the conviction that God would do what he promised. Note something very important here. Abram believed God would do, not just that God could do. This is the conviction ingredient, and the ingredient God looked for in order to transfer Abram's faith from a promise to a reality.

Our faith grew tangibly through the time of Zoe's seizure. I was following the ambulance which was carrying Mel and Zoe. Suddenly I felt something rise within me. Instead of just believing that God could heal Zoe and praying along those lines, I believed that God would heal her and began praying with more conviction. The difference was immediate: instantly Zoe stopped fitting (she was at the 25-minute mark by then) and started crying, which the paramedics said was a good thing. Two minutes later the ambulance stopped to transfer Zoe to a MICA ambulance, which gave Mel and I the opportunity to talk. I found out Zoe stopped fitting two minutes earlier and told Mel about the difference in my prayer. Mel told me she experienced the same feeling I  had.

So what's the difference in our faith? In Abram's and Zoe's situations the difference was changing my focus from God can to God will. Few of us doubt God's ability, so the God can faith is easy. Until my prayer changed gear, I was praying things like "God I know you can heal; I know you can heal Zoe". Now sometimes God doesn't heal. We may or may not ever understand the reason. But with a conviction that God will comes a peace that, no matter the outcome, God loves us and is still in control.

The difficult faith is the God will faith. You find yourself in a situation of need and you realise (sometimes agonisingly) that there is nothing important enough or good enough in yourself that will convince God to act on your behalf. Yet you find yourself praying "God, I know you are a healing God. I believe that you will intervene in Zoe's situation for me and on my behalf. Thank you". You still can't see any possible way this could be OK, yet you choose to believe that it will be OK.

When we lost Jasmine, Mel and I believed that everything would be OK because God says in the Bible in Romans 8 that all things work together for the good of those who love [God], who are called according to his purpose. Since that time, despite losing Jasmine without a healing miracle for her, many opportunities have arisen to tell others about God's faithfulness and overwhelming love in and through our crisis, and the healing for Mel and I, which came out of our brief time with Jasmine, was amazing.

It was Abram's God will faith that God counted as Abram's righteousness. It was Abram's God will faith in action again that carried him through the agony of very nearly sacrificing his own son, Isaac. Without going into the following stories, it was the God will faith of people like Noah, Moses and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego which enabled them to see the other side of their circumstances.

OK, but what if God doesn't? Despite our God will faith, sometimes he doesn't answer our prayer, and this can be excruciating. The Bible says that God is faithful, and that he knows all things and will sustain us. If our God will faith doesn't seem to be met, God knows the reason, even if we don't or never do. He calls us to put our God will faith into action again: God will make things OK once more. God will heal. God will get a great testimony out of this journey, regardless of the outcome, because I trust him.

God certainly can. What he wants is for us to believe that he will.

Every day I thank God for Zoe. Whenever I remember Jasmine, I thank God for her too - with fondness, not regret or sadness. God is good. Keep watch for Jasmine's and Zoe's stories.

Swamps, Forests and The 998 That Just Wouldn't Die - an evening with some Smithton mud truckers

There's no wind amongst the swampy tea-tree and sedge, but just a step up onto the flat tray of the Hilux and I can feel the soft breeze on my face. A silver sliver of a moon is making its way to the grassy horizon, only visible from my elevated position. The stars are intense. The cool white hue of the Milky Way directly above is in contrast to the orange glow above the trees. That way is industry and civilisation.

Daryl Kerrigan's only preference to serenity shatters the calm. There must be a two-stroke screaming towards us. No, wait - that's the white Sierra ute, dubbed the 998cc. Sounding for all the world like a two-wheeler, this creature moves quickly about on four wheels and looks fairly stock-standard: there are no visible mods, not even tyres. Rounding the corner, it comes to rest a little way behind the Hilux, its bow wave gently gaining on us along the pair of wheel ruts. Tonight, I'm mud trucking.

We're on our way back to my ride, which has just been hung up on its diffs: a SWB Sierra, modified almost as much at the 998cc hasn't been. Before long we've been snatched out, and we and the Hilux are off the track and back on the gravel. The 998cc, however, is stopped, and doesn't seem to want to kick over. There's some steaming from under the bonnet, but after a quick pull-start using the snatch strap, we figure they've just had some water splashing under the hood. Righto. Back to base to pick up a recovery vehicle, then on to the tree farm for more.

At HQ, two things are clear about the 998cc. The second thing is that it has been modified, and this is made obvious by the first thing: there's still steam coming out from under the bonnet. Opened up, we realise there's not so much steam now: all the water is gone. All of it. The best thing would be to leave it here at HQ to cool. Nope. Let's chuck more water in her and get going again.

Rocking and bouncing along in the belly of the Snarling Wonder Bus Sierra, we don't really need our headlights, even in the dark. Following the smell of the 998 is enough to guide us. She looks a bit sick. Up into the plantations we venture, although it's obvious now that the Sierra ute is struggling. At the top of a hill in the trees, we stop again and bonnet-up. Billows of steam pour out. And blue smoke. It's a bit of a mystery though: the head gasket looks shot by the oil splattered around the engine bay, but it doesn't explain the water loss.

Billions of billious blue blustering tornadoes...(with apologies to Tintin fans)

The recovery vehicle we brought, to park for just in case, is now an active part of the convoy. It's another Hilux: Pugs' Truck. We abandon the 998 and head into the dark forest. Dark, that is, until Pugs' LED lensers kick in: someone compared them to the MCG lights, but I can't remember which of the two sets of lights they said was brighter.

The mud is amazing. And the tyres on the Snarling Wonder Bus are just as much so: for the rest of the night, we're in 2WD, despite the steepness of the wet, red clay slopes. Along the track for a while, and then back to fetch the stricken 998. There's almost no escaping the wet, red clay. You can hearthe tyres peeling off it with a terrifically satisfying squelch. Gumboots were a great idea. So glad I listened to the advice of my driver, because we're in and out of the SWB all the time.

The Snarling Wonder Bus

Returning to the 998, bonnet still up, we find the reason for the lack of water and discover just how it's been modified: the lower radiator hose has split. Not a usual mod, I'll admit. We joke about saving weight by not carrying water in the cooling system or, for that matter, oil in the engine. But, the hose gets fixed, the cooling system is refilled and it lives on. We start thinking about how much of the return journey we'll actually have to tow it back.

So back through the mud we go, and the 998 just will not give up. It's even got its power back, and gives the hills a flogging. For more than an hour. At what sounds like full throttle. Sure, it's lighter than either Hilux, but its engine is about to blow up. Surely. Or not. This thing doesn't just limp home. It gallops. In full voice, head high, as if to say "is that all you've got?"

Parted for the return journey, we occupants of the Snarling Wonder Bus Sierra shake our heads and laugh, baffled as to why the 998 didn't cark it.

Cheers Jamo, Tim, Logan and both Lees.A quality night with quality blokes (and a quality two-stroke 998cc Sierra).