The government’s ratings are plummeting after the announcement of the new carbon tax in Australia. The tax, chosen from among the models already in use around the world, will be applied to the 500 biggest polluters in Australia to encourage them to find greener alternatives to their current processes.
It seems strange to me that a country of people who love the outdoors and want to keep the environment in its current state (or better) for future generations would complain about companies being taxed for their harmful practices. Of course, in most cases the nature of the affected industries is inherently harmful (eg mining) and they’re in the front line of the opposition to the tax.
They argue that jobs will be lost. They argue that foreign investment will be reduced. This may be true, but I didn’t see the Australian population caring about lost jobs or export dollars when there were animals being slaughtered inhumanely. Why fight on behalf of animals that aren’t around to suffer, but then not fight when it is our own descendants that will live through the poorer environment?
The main concern I’ve heard on the streets is due to fear that these companies will pass on their increased costs to the consumer. Well, of course they will. When mining costs go up, the price of fuel and ores will go up and that will eventually be passed on to the cost of our airfares and our pots and pans. Personally, I’d rather pay a bit more for something knowing that the money is being put to cleaning up our environment. And I’ll probably buy less because of the rise in cost, which ultimately means less damage.
But then the Australian culture seems hypocritical in this sense. We want a cleaner environment, but don’t want to pay for it. It should be those unnamed polluters who suffer – not me! In the 90s, Pure Energy was introduced to Australia and at the end of the 90s only around one percent of us had signed up to have even 10% of our power created with renewable sources. I wonder what the take-up rate is now. Do we really want cleaner air?
But we won’t actually be paying much for the extra work because the government is playing Robin Hood, giving most families tax rebates taken from the big polluters. So what are we complaining about? Please enlighten me.