Clean energy in the future

The carbon tax or the Clean Energy Future
by GDL.

The Carbon Tax, as the opposition likes to call it, was implemented on the 1st of July 2012 in Australia. From that day some 300 big polluters will pay $23 for every ton of carbon emission they release in the atmosphere.
The opposition, the Liberals and Nationals, has campaigned vigorously and continues to campaign hard against what they call a bad tax. They say it will not reduce gas emissions but instead will raise the  cost of living of Australians. They also said that as from the 1st July, everything will go wrong in Australia: prices of goods, services and commodities will go up, many small business will close shops. They even said that some of the towns where electricity is produced, like Wyalla and La Trobe valley, will become ghost towns.

Well the 1st of July is there and gone and nothing dramatic has happened. However it is still too soon to measure the real impact of the carbon tax on the economy. Prices of electricity has already gone up but this is irrelevant of the carbon tax as electricity prices had gone up by 78% in the last ten years.

We will monitor  in the days and month to come whether the big supermarkets will put the prices up, less sales and less discounts. This will be the real test for everyone as it will hit our pockets directly.

The same scare campaign was run by labour when the Liberals introduced the GST of 10%. Today we live with it and continue to enjoy life. The same will happen with the carbon tax, like any tax we will live with it and soon we will forget about it.

But maybe not, as this will be the centrepiece of the opposition electoral campaign in a year or so. However, we will then be in a better position to judge who was right and who was wrong.
We will be in a position to assess whether it was a good thing to make polluters pay for damaging the atmosphere and whether this has caused massive job lost and raise the cost of living.

The Labor government has already compensated, and they will again compensate, those who could be worse off under the Clean Energy Future legislation.  They linked the legislation with tax reforms and already more than a million Australians will pay no tax while others  will save around $2,000 every year. Pensioners has received a lump sum of $300 and families with children in schools have received some $800.

The opposition say they will repeal the tax if they come to power. Tony Abbott said there will be no carbon tax under his government. This will not be possible even if they win a big majority in the lower house because the Greens and Labor will have a  majority in the senate and will surely block the new legislation of repealing the Clean Energy Legislation.
In reality there will be a carbon tax if Mr Abbott wins for some months or years unless he triggers a double dissolution and win outright majority in the senate. So in the years to come we can expect not one but two federal elections in a row. If again the Greens and Labour controls the senate, the carbon tax will stay.
If the sky has not fallen on our heads on the 1st of July, the question remains should we have done it now when the rest of the world has not moved ? But should we wait for the rest of the world to move and then  follow ? Should we have done nothing ? Is the  cost of doing nothing not more that doing something now. But have we done it the right way ? The answers are not blowing in the wind but will come from YOU.