Queensland Senator Ron Boswell asked the Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong, in Senate question time today, whether she thought it was fair that the Australian government ask impoverished countries to impose a carbon tax on their citizens who already face great hardship
Senator Boswell asked Minister Wong if It is unfair and unreasonable to expect countries like India, China and Indonesia, to place a carbon tax on their industries that will increase the price of shelter, food, and transport for their citizens many of whom already live well below the poverty line and have an insufficient calorie intake, insufficient clean water supply, and insufficient shelter, to which the Senator Wong had no answer.
Senator Boswell also asked what the point of the Gillard Labor governments Carbon tax was, when it is taken into account that major emitters such as China and India are expected to increase their global emissions drastically by 2020.
“China’s carbon emissions are projected to rise by four hundred and ninety six percent and India’s by three hundred and fifty percent by 2020.
“Australia’s Carbon emissions are low at 1.4 percent, whereas countries like China and India are much larger growing rapidly, Senator Boswell said
“So why should Australia with its low rate of global emissions, enter into a tax that will cripple the economy , whilst the major emitters of the world are expected to increase their global emissions out put by 2020.
“Even if we reduce emissions by an effective 30% on the business as usual scenario in 2020, it would be utterly meaningless in the context of the projected massive growth in emissions from, principally, developing countries
In 2008 modelling for the old CPRS said that a carbon tax would:
1. reduce growth in aggregate productivity,
2. produce temporary unemployment of up to ten years.
3. Will see real wages fall by 4.2 percent and will hit the Treasurer’s home state of Queensland the hardest - reducing Gross State Product by 6.5 percent?
“Recently Wayne Swan gave speech on the benefits of the Carbon tax but gave no modelling to back up his claim.
“There is no point to this, this tax must be dumped . Senator Boswell said.
ENDS