Crikey John Howard has a bloody hide!
He says human induced climate change is �one of the major challenges confronting the world this century�. He says fuel emissions account for the bulk of global warming and that �the potential for climate change is real and addressing it will require changes to the way the world produces and uses energy.� His �Securing Australia�s energy future� White Paper boldly states:
�Emissions of greenhouse gases have the potential to raise global temperatures, resulting in deleterious effects to people and the natural world, its land and seascapes, its flora and fauna. Substantial reductions in global greenhouse emissions will be needed to avoid these effects� ENERGY SECTOR EMISSIONS MUST BE REDUCED AS PART OF ANY EFFECTIVE GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSE.�
So what does Howard do?
He slashes fuel taxes or abolishes them for business and farmers at a cost of $1.5 billion, and promises to spend a third of that to promote cleaner, greener energy!
Howard’s Spin City has spun so completely out of control that he�s proclaimed a policy aim directly contradicted by the policy itself. I did economics at university a long time ago, but the basics haven�t changed. To promote less use or a shift to alternatives, you raise the price. To encourage more use, you drop the price. What the hell is this about?
Easy. Pure politics at its most debased � devastatingly bad policy for our environment and our energy security, but impossible for Labor to oppose on the eve of an election. Yet another Howard bribe, and yet another emptying of the bank account to stop Latham announcing any big new policy. And what, we might ask, will Peter Garrett think of the almost inevitable decision by Labor to let the cuts through?
Howard is repeating his Beazley trap of 2001, when he abolished the indexation of fuel excise and robbed a potential Labor government of billions over time with which we could have repaired our rivers and brought our universities back to life. Beazley had no political choice but to back Howard, and was left with nothing in the kitty to fund his planned higher education vision. (For a refresher see Petrol pump politics, March 1, 2001.)
Remember the negotiations with the Democrats to get Howard�s GST through after the 1998 election? Howard wanted a big slash of diesel fuel taxes to business and farmers. In a meeting with Treasurer Costello, Dems leader Meg Lees pointed out that encouraging people to stay with diesel and use more fuel would add to global warming. Costello�s mouth fell open � he hadn�t even considered the issue!
The rail industry camped in Meg�s office for days, and she finally scored a bit of an incentive for rail freight. Five years later, Howard and Costello still don�t give a damn about global warming, but now they�ve put cuts in fuel prices for business and farmers in an energy statement touting the need for alternative energies to take over from oil. And it�s not only global warming that�s urgent, but the world�s supply of oil is running out (see Oils ain’t just oils, they’re to die for and Deputy PM confirms oil crisis).
Howard has now made heavy freight trucks shoot way ahead of rail, yet Deputy PM Anderson trumpets the scam, baldly proclaiming that the policy would make �Australia�s road transport sector even more efficient and competitive�. What a way to reduce emissions.
The question of the day was from the Daily Telegraph�s Malcolm Farr: �How is making fossil fuel cheaper for more people part of an overall programme to wean us off dirty fuel sources?�
Howard: �I�m not� what the essential argument of this paper, and I hope of my remarks Malcolm, is that whatever may be the merits of renewables, the reality is that the older fuels of which we have large supplies are going to contribute the bulk of our energy needs and what we have to do is to make them cleaner…”
How about making them cleaner AND minimising their use? Can�t get your head around the old carrot and stick approach, John?
After the oil shock in the 1970s Australia�s government changed tax policy to make LPG much cheaper than petrol, a much dirtier fuel. Taxi companies converted their fleets to LPG, and the trend to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars began. Now, the differential in price is almost gone, and so is the incentive to convert to LPG. John, the world�s oil is running out and oil is destroying the world we live in, environmentally and in the Middle East. We need to REDUCE its use, not increase it.
Yet he�s �clever�, yet again. Bankrupt on the national interest, yet again. Whatever it takes, yet again.
This �package� makes absolutely no sense except in terms of debased politics in pure form. One little example. Howard said he�d spend $75 million on a trial of subsidised solar power in two or three communities. He mentioned Sydney and Adelaide as desired venues. Huh? Surely Brisbane, Darwin, Townsville, Cairns or Perth � with lots of sun and lots of air conditioning costs � would be the best places to start?
Where are the marginal seats Howard fears losing? Why, in Adelaide and Sydney, of course. Sickening but true. The only way to excuse this bloke is to assume that he�s got so imperial that he truly believes that his personal interest IS the national interest. Of course the means justify the ends if John Howard is the great leader we need now. Of course.
PS: Does Howard really care about global warming? The Herald Sun�s Jason Frenkel asked: �Would you be able to tell us what�s being done to conserve water and electricity and other resources at Kirribilli House and the Lodge?�
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have given instructions that any of the local water consumption protocols and rules that have been laid down by the ACT Government and the New South Wales are strictly observed. And when they came out I made a particular point of asking my department to send a memorandum to staff in relation to the water restrictions and if there�s any breaching of them, well that would be against my expressed request and instructions.
Yes siree, deep green Howard insisted that the current law be obeyed. What a guy.