Australia’s carbon tax changes will benefit middle and lower income earners
the changes redistributed income from high to low income earners more than previous Labor budgets and the tax cuts of last decade under the Howard government
the changes ensured people who needed support were the ones receiving benefits or tax cuts……The 1st of July marks the starting date for major tax changes.
Carbon tax marks biggest overhaul since the GST , The Age, Clancy Yeates and Peter Martin June 23, 2012 HOUSEHOLDS and businesses face the biggest tax shake-up in more than a decade in just over a week, as the carbon price and major changes to tax rates and family payments take effect.
And unlike the back-to-back tax cuts of the Howard years, the upcoming changes will overwhelmingly benefit low and middle income earners while taxing higher income households more. Under compensation for the carbon tax, everyone earning less than $80,000 a year will receive a tax cut. Continue reading
Australia’s carbon tax – theme for this week
Just seven days to go, and we wonder what kind of stunt Tony Abbott will try to pull, to stop it before it’s too late. Has Australia ever before witnessed an opposition leader who will go to any lengths to destroy a Prime Minister? Regardless of the damage done to Australia’s economy, Tony Abbott has obsessively and relentlessly aimed for a double dissolution of Parliament.
And why? Does Abbott really care whether there’s a carbon tax or not? Abbott just wants to be TOP – it’s as simple as that. With the funding and backing of the pollutng industries, and their mouthpieces, such as the Institute of Public Affairs, and the Murdoch media – Tony Abbott thought that the way to the TOP would be by riding along on the anti carbon tax campaign.
Tony, setting his sights on a double dissolution which would usher in his cancellation of the carbon tax, just didn’t factor in the possibility that, despite every dirty tactic in the book, and not in the book, the double dissolution has not happened. Yet, anyway – perhaps Abbott thinks he can still pull it off within this week?
The interesting part will be the repercussions after the tax comes in. When Liberal Prime Minister John Howard brought in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) – his opponents predicted doom. But – doom just didn’t happen.
Tony Abbott’s predictions of Armageddon following the carbon tax might just end up looking silly. Christina Macpherson
Tony Abbott’s and Australia’s Liberal Party’s stunts to discredit the carbon tax
No claim too big, no stunt too outrageous.Tony Abbott has already predicted the tax will wipe out Whyalla and kill off the economy. After July 1 some of the more preposterous claims can be held to account but in the meantime it seems to be a free-for-all in the hysteria stakes.
McGuire: It’s war on Gillard http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/mcguire-no-claim-too-big-in-war-on-gillard/story-e6freai3-1226404821804 Michael McGuire June 21, 2012 JUST when you thought political debate couldn’t slide any lower, along comes George Brandis with a new shovel and keeps digging.
It’s dispiriting really that it’s come to this. This week Senator Brandis, the Liberal’s shadow attorney-general, came to the conclusion that a tax that hasn’t yet been applied is the sole reason that Fairfax is sacking 1900 people and radically restructuring its business.
It flew in the face of common sense and the truth. Nowhere in its 24-page statement did Fairfax mention the carbon tax. Continue reading
Australia a leader in climate change action
PM commits Australia to green jobs, Herald Sun By Paul Osborne 22 June 12 Prime Minister Julia Gillard had told world leaders she’ll drive a push to end global poverty by creating green jobs, despite green groups and unions accusing the world environment summit of being a failure.
In a seven-minute address to the United Nations sustainable development conference in Rio de Janeiro this morning (AEST), Ms Gillard said that even though government heads had “already lowered other important ambitions”, it was important that the world put in place sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Ms Gillard and the Australian delegation have pushed hard for SDGs to replace eight UN millennium development goals, put in place to fight global poverty in 2000 and which expire in 2015. The prime minister has been appointed to co-chair a taskforce to oversee the final years of the millennium goals and ensure the 191 signatory nations meet their commitments.
“Everyone here knows that collective action is hard – and that global collective action can be even harder,” Ms Gillard said.
But targets work, Ms Gillard said, and create the firmest possible basis for long-term success.Ms Gillard said Australia was playing its part in addressing climate change and creating green jobs by putting in place a carbon pricing
scheme from July 1 and investing in renewable energy technology….. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/pm-commits-australia-to-green-jobs/story-e6frf7jx-1226405748931
No jobs on a dead planet: summit, The Age, Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer, June 23, 2012 – World leaders and business chiefs have accepted there are no jobs on a dead planet, at the end of a three-day environment summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will play a key role in driving reforms agreed to by more than 190 nations at the Rio+20 conference, which comes 20 years after the original Earth Summit which invented the term “sustainable development”….. Continue reading
Tourism industry damaged in Fukui prefecture by the restart of Oi nuclear reactors
the distinction of being selected as the first town with reactors designated for restart has put a damper on the town’s ambitions to diversify its economy by becoming more of a tourism resort.
A survey released May 31 by national broadcaster NHK found 81% of people in the towns bordering Oi think the nuclear plant there may suffer a Fukushima-type disaster.
Japan’s Nuclear Restarts Worry Tourism Industry WSJ, By CHESTER, DAWSON, 22 June 12 OI, Japan—The Sodegahama public beach draws thousands of swimmers and sunbathers who flock each summer to the sheltered cove at the tip of a rural peninsula in Fukui prefecture. At one end of the arc of sand is a popular campground with a pair of historic bronze cannons dating from 1854. At the other lies a tree-covered hill shielding the view of four nuclear reactor domes 1,000 feet (several hundred meters) away.
As the Japanese government has moved to restart nuclear reactors for the first time since last year’s disaster in Fukushima, this seaside town, which depends on the plant for jobs and subsidies, is wary about of the impact on another major source of revenue: tourism….. Continue reading
A second successful long distance flight by solar powered plane
Solar plane makes successful flight over Moroccan desert Herald Sun, AFP June 22, 2012 A SOLAR-powered plane has completed a flight over the Moroccan desert to showcase renewable energy, as a key summit in Rio discussed “greening” the world economy. Continue reading
Australia to reach 20% renewable electricity by 2020
Among all renewable energy sources, solar PV had the highest revenue share in 2011, while wind power is considered the lowest cost form of large-scale renewable energy generation in the ANZ region. It is noteworthy that Australia has some of the best wind resources in the world.
Renewables to generate a fifth of Australia’s electricity by 2020 http://www.newstatesman.com/business/energy/2012/06/renewables-generate-fifth-australias-electricity-2020 Green energy revenues in Australia and New Zealand to reach $5.04bn over the next four years. NEW STATESMAN 22 JUNE 2012 Revenues from renewable energy markets in the Australia and New Zealand region (ANZ) will reach an estimated $5.04bn by the end of 2016, according to new analysis from the business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
Renewables in ANZ markets earned revenues of $1.90bn in 2011. Subha Krishnan, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said:
Ever since the RET target for 2020 was amended to provide a solar multiplier for rooftop solar systems and some states introduced generous feed-in tariffs, small-scale installations such as [photovoltaic] systems and solar hot water systems have flooded the REC market. Continue reading
Electric cars – no greenhouse emissions IF POWERED BY RENEWABLE ENERGY
Electric cars silently make a charge in trial , The Age, Adam Carey June 23, 2012 YOU might not see it coming – and you certainly won’t hear it coming – but the day when electric cars start to appear on our roads could be just around the corner.
Small, speedy and near silent, there are just 100 or so electric cars on the road in Victoria now, the Department of Transport says. About half of them are being used in a trial it is doing to learn more about how people might use them here.
One-hundred-and-eighty households and 60 organisations are being given a three-month loan of an electric car during the trial, which is due to wrap up in 2014…..
People in the electric car industry accept price is a sticking point. The Nissan Leaf, which went on sale in Australia this week, retails for $51,500. But about $15,000 of the cost is in the rechargeable
battery….
.. the cars release no direct carbon emissions, and potentially zero emissions if powered by renewable energy.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/electric-cars-silently-make-a-charge-in-trial-20120622-20tu7.html#ixzz1yeulK3KA
1.This month.
Zoom webinar – “Nuclear Winter: The Environmental Consequences of a Nuclear Exchange.”
April 7th at 11:30 am PST / 2:30 pm EST
Nuclear Winter: The Environmental Consequences of a Nuclear Exchange”
Join us for an informative webinar with renowned atmospheric scientist, Professor Brian Toon, as he discusses the environmental risks and global impacts of a nuclear war. Despite the potential damage caused by the blast from even small nuclear weapons, many countries continue to invest in and expand nuclear arsenals. Professor Toon will provide a scientific assessment of civilian fatalities, agricultural failures, climate concerns, and complications with food supply that would follow any international nuclear conflict. We need to plan how to prevent nuclear conflict and avoid catastrophe. Politicians and military planners must be made aware of global climate and agricultural complications that would ensue. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from, and engage in, this vital conversation
The Road to War brings a sharp focus to why it is not in Australia’s best interest to be dragged into a war with China which will almost inevitably go nuclear very quickly. The filmmaker has interviewed some of Australia’s senior foreign policy analysts who have vast experience behind them in analysing what really is going on here as the United States rattles its sabres with China. And sets us up to be its proxy, like the poor Ukranians have been fed into the Meatgrinder. So America can remain the Top Dog. The Road to War reveals how the United States through its spy base at Pine Gap and by stationing six nuclear capable B52 bombers in the Top End (without permission from the traditional owners) is making Australia a prime nuclear target if the current war of words suddenly melts down into full scale war.
The Road to War shows the implicit connection between Carbon emissions (the US military uses a whopping 70% of America’s annual petroleum to move its armies and vast War Machine around the globe to its 800+ military bases..but under a loophole wangled at Kyoto, the US military does not have to report its C02 annual emissions). The Road to War starts screening at selected cities and regional centres in March. See the trailer end for details.
Antinuclear 