Sandy, I think you simply misunderstood what he said. To be clear, he did not say we would have no influence on the climate.......freediver

Of course humans have some sort of impact on climate, but taxing the living daylights out of people and then compensating others will not change anything except to send the country broke.  Maybe the planet's population of about 6.9 billion which is estimated to rise to about 9 billion in the not too distant future might have something to do with it, maybe not.  The earth's climate is ALWAYS changing, ever heard of such things as sun spots and the like?

GILLARD'S CARBON TAX IS NOTHING BUT A SCAM TO RAISE MORE MONEY TO HELP PAY OFF LABOR'S GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF THE COUNTRY'S FINANCES. Anyone with half a brain can see that

freediver wrote on Mar 26^th, 2011 at 10:16am:


Good luck FD
100's have tried in all sorts of ways but until Tony is PM and says he wants a carbon tax it will not be so.
Of course if that ever came about they would then critise labor for not doing enough on such an important issue

sandysquirrel18 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2011 at 10:07am:



The one thing I would like explained -

If you put a carbon tax on Australian manufacturers of carbon intensive products - such as steel for example - but you don't place any carbon related restriction on imported carbon intensive products from countries which don't have any controls - how is that beneficial to either Australia or the environment?

What you end up doing is making it more expensive for AUS manufacturers and harder for them to compete against their overseas competitors?

In fact Australian manufacturers may well be more carbon efficient than say the Indian steel makers - yet no restriction is in place on them - so in Australia we could very well be contributing to increased carbon emissions in the world?

Is this not a valid point?

Just wondering what supporters of this carbon tax feel about no restriction on incoming products from manufacturers subject to no controls at all.

There are 6,910,000,000 people in the world (give an take a few Greens)

Taxing the     21,000,000 in Australia will not reduce global warming

Maqqa wrote on Mar 26^th, 2011 at 10:53am:


Doing nothing will not prevent global warming.....Australia is committed to cutting its carbon output just like other countries.....How we make these cuts is what the debate is about.....Australia needs to decide what mechanism it will use to make the required cuts and work towards that goal using a combination of renewable options!!!

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 26^th, 2011 at 10:55am:


Gillard said on qanda that it will help families at the Supermarket ie making those products will a higher carbon footprint more expensive therefore we will choose cheaper ones

But she failed to tell us the cheaper ones are usually from China - which CLEARLY has a higher carbon footprint

And if you continue to select Chinese made products then you will drive Australian manufacturing offshore

In addition - as Australian products become more expensive due to the tax Australian exports will decrease

How many in the overseas market actually make a purchase decision based on carbon footprint? And if there are any - will this sustain Australian exports? NO!!

Maqqa wrote on Mar 26^th, 2011 at 11:02am:



All countries will be expected to meet there obligation.....Australia is committed to meet its obligation no matter which party is in power.....The debate needs to be about what is the best mechanism to reduce our carbon output in Australia.....your argument is irrelevant.....Action will be taken and it will cost a great deal of money no matter who is in power...Your views are not represented by any political party in this country!!!

Humanity is on a self-destructive course to receive premature Darwin Awards en masse...whilst ever a small group of amoral, wealthy and powerful people and corporations can get away with profiting from confounding the issues and spuriously-separating their destructive actions from the scientific evidence...