On the 12th of October 2011, the Australian House of Representatives passed the controversial Carbon Tax Bill with 74 votes to 72. You have to love the Gillard government’s attempt to make it sound appealing to Australians by calling it the “Clean Energy Bill 2011”; however I doubt it is fooling anyone. This is just a nice way of saying we are going to take more money from you because we have the power to do so.
The carbon tax put very simply, is a sum of money that companies will have to pay, per tonne of pollution that they produce to the government. In response to this, the companies have to make changes to be able to afford the tax, so they will lessen the jobs in their company or tax the public more money. The Carbon Tax affects everyone.
I applaud the government’s attempt to do something about the issue of pollution, because it is definitely an issue that needs addressing, but is now the right time to do so? Carbon emissions is a big problem, but taxing the big companies in Australia is only going to make less jobs available to workers and force these companies to put their own prices up, hence everyone is affected by the tax. The Bill therefore will not lower the amount of pollution produced each year, it will only cause more economic problems in Australia.
Less jobs in Australia, an increase in Tax for everyone and the same amount of pollution in the atmosphere. The Gillard government are either not thinking this through properly or have a hidden motive. Economists are currently saying that Australia is on the verge of a recession. The government is obviously in debt and so have introduced this bill to gain more money because they have the power to do so. I hope this is the reason because otherwise the people running our country have no idea how to do so. Introducing the Carbon Tax when we are on the verge of a recession is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.
Squiznit 