The ALP’s Tony Windsor has been urging us to ‘look closely’ at the proposed carbon tax to appreciate the benefits of the tax (Independent, 13 July, pp.4,5). Let us, then, do just that:
Mr Windsor says the carbon tax will provide compensation in full for taxpayers on low incomes, in part for those on middle incomes. How much money is in the payout, Mr Windsor? Never fear, he says – the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ‘will make sure companies aren’t using the carbon tax as an excuse to bump up prices unnecessarily’. So when will companies bump up prices – but not ‘unnecessarily’, Mr Windsor? How long does it take the ACCC to receive a complaint and act on it while consumers still pay carbon tax on everything they use each day, Mr Windsor? And won’t the compensation money be used to buy more carbon tax-laden items?
The proposed carbon tax is no more than topping up the income-tax revenue of the Green-Labor Federal Government, a government which has created a deficit of more than 133 billion dollars in just three years. But never mind, Mr Windsor assures us that we shall all reap the benefits of the carbon tax compensation. Assuredly. Most assuredly.
Dr Paul Fidlon,
Armidale
