phill Parsons
“The technological developments and economic incentives to allow each home to become a power station through the new sliver cell technology for photovoltaics, as is occurring in Germany right now, make it possible to change the power supply system reducing the regular demands for domestic supply from the hydro system, allowing it time to refill in this period of further dangerous climate chaos. “
Howard offers $34B and Rudd $31B of these, the difference being those on a wage over $180k miss out under Labor and instead Education $2.3B and Health [$400M] get a boost.
Therefore we can conclude that government, of which ever party, has $34B extra to spend.
Is it the only choice to blow this opportunity on a direct return to the taxpayer through the taxation system or is there an alternative.
Clive Hamilton of the Australia Institute has recently shown on the available data that the middle class is not doing it tough financially. All income levels have increased.
Brown [Greens] in his address to the National Press Club flagged an alternative spend
Education
$5.645B including the abolition of the HECS fee
Pensions
Less than $3.5B
Dental Care [Denticare]
Uncosted
Public Health
$3.5B returned to state run public hospitals from the medical insurance rebate
Indigenous Health
$500M
Carers
$927M in additional payments
So here’s a modest spend targeting identified areas of social need. There is also a direct return to taxpayers, one that targets the greatest threat to the economy, to interest rates, housing affordability, jobs, exports, the works – climate chaos.
The North Atlantics rate of carbon absorption is trending down. As that ocean warms it is absorbing less CO2 and so it will follow for other oceans as they warm and their rate of absorption catches up. These huge natural sinks have been important sources of absorption through the large volumes of plankton found in colder waters.
Mitigation Measure to avoid further dangerous Climate Chaos
$22B invested in energy audits at the homeowner level followed by assistance to change energy consumption patterns including through solar water heaters [Labor has a policy to ban high energy consuming water heaters] and insulation measures along with low flow water saving shower heads over a 10 year period.
The cost of these investments to be returned in the savings to the users, part repaid to the Australian government over a 10 year period for the cost of the investment. For the 7M households in Australia an average saving of $314pa on electricity [heating water and space] and water consumption would repay the whole investment.
At 70% of that saving in household costs [$220pa off power bills] would see the cost to the revenue at some $6.6B over the life of the proposal [2028 for the last conversion to be repaid], an extraordinarily modest investment in partly addressing the costs of human induced and Howard enhanced climate catastrophe that is the result of ongoing inaction at the same time saving households year in year out, once they had repaid their share of the investment.
As it will take a number of years to implement this conversion scheme the spend period appears to be longer to that of the proposed tax cuts and so 0a direct comparison is not possible. The main difficulty will be building the expertise and industrial capacity to meet a demand of about ten times that of new housing currently.
Positive measures to assist the needy and not the greedy and save our economy from the huge costs of environmental collapse associated with climate chaos. Reasonable and responsible and not a tax cut to be seen.
Further Brown flagged a Carbon Trading price of $40 per tonne. In Tasmanian terms this outstrips even the price FT has gained for it premier pulp product, plantation hardwood, of $35 per tonne and leaves the price received for native forest for dead [$17 per tonne].
These new prices were announced after Brown’s address to the NPC. It is interesting that the lower price exceeds the current carbon trading price in the EU. Perhaps someone is taking the information on board.
Following the NPC address O’Brien [7.30 Report, that program with the tired old format of rehashing the news] invited Greens leader Brown in for a very rare interview. Asked to explain why he was bothering when he admitted the party is unlikely to become government and may not even hold the balance of power in the Senate, Brown valiantly attempted to defend the reality that the polls indicate in determing the position the Greens take, eg Work Choices.
Of course no one is going to see the Greens as an alternative unless the media views them as one. In an electoral period the public broadcaster has a duty to show equally the parties with a national following that are seeking government by standing sufficient candidates, thus ending the ABC’s old 2 party bias.
Brown also made mention of the Green criteria for a new pulpmill in his National Press Club address and the Tamar Valley is not an acceptable location.
The state government has locked Tasmania into a low price for 20 years, when potentially 15 of those years will see carbon trading in Australia [Howard’s scheme to start in 2012 if he is re-elected and Costello wins another election on his own or Rudd takes it in 10 but if it’s Kevin 07 a start may occur earlier].
Yes folks, former Labor Senate candidate Bob Gordon has generously failed Tasmanians by giving away any future value to be gained from carbon trading these trees instead of woodchipping them, regardless of which party introduces carbon trading [Labor policy is to introduce carbon trading by the first Rudd government unless of course it suddenly becomes non core under CFMEU [Forestry Division] and coal industry pressure, something Bob may know more about then we think].
At $17 per tonne harvested the standing native forest could loose for Tasmanians in dollar terms and in terms of the climate they are so used to will be a looser, perhaps commencing at the same time the mill comes on line in 2009.
A clause for price renegotiation if there was a competing market demand, should have been included as a prudent measure, an idea that must have escaped the thinkers in government. If the price of pulpwood in Australia is influenced by carbon trading then Tasmanians will be stuck with another loss maker.
The Hydro is failing to show us the long term impact on dam levels of the low rainfall years but you can see it in the accounts. $14M loss and a $50M prop to keep them in business this year.
In the western states of the US, like in WA, water authorities and planners are of the view that the rainfall pattern and volume has changed with the annual totals falling to a new lower level.
There the snowfall has an important role in filling the water storages and this is becoming less at the same time as demand is rising.
The alternative to the Bass Strait cable of energy savings by other measures would, when combined with on demand gas fired power, have given a similar outcome until now.
Now we are tied to dirty brown coal for another 23 years unless Victoria takes a lead in change, something more likely than the government in Hobart doing so. Carbon trading will cause the price of this energy source to rise over the 25% that Aurora has agreement by the prices oversight body to increase domestic prices by.
The technological developments and economic incentives to allow each home to become a power station through the new sliver cell technology for photovoltaics, as is occurring in Germany right now, make it possible to change the power supply system reducing the regular demands for domestic supply from the hydro system, allowing it time to refill in this period of further dangerous climate chaos.
All that is needed is carbon trading and legislation to allow resale of surplus power back into the grid, ending the government knows best approach to one basic service in the interest of industry.
The alternative is the burning of wood waste [source undefined] in an unpopular, and yet to be shown as clean, pulpmill at Longreach.
The Tasmanian Labor government failed Tasmania with its minimal climate change commitments and continues trashing of our carbon stores including their embodied dollar value.
Is this a corollary for a failure by a national Labor Government, as special and vested interests lobby Canberra for in their short term benefit at a cost to us all, or is that only confined to Tasmania.
Have a little think, money in the back pocket now or a future.
phill Parsons
