The Road to a Green Brutopia.

Picture; Senator Ron Boswell.

The following is a press release from Senator Ron Boswell who seems to be one of the few voices of sanity in the Australian government, and one of the few who is able to recognize the stupidity of rushing headlong into destruction in the name of Global warming. With India, China, and most of the developing countries point blank refusing to comply with limits on carbon emissions, and Europe rapidly cooling towards it, Australia is at serious risk of finding itself alone in penalizing its industries in this way.

Incredibly Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has ‘allowed’ Nationals to cross the floor in recognition of the fact that the tax breaks to forestry could hurt farming, but is supporting this legislation in spite of the fact that in hurting farming it will raise food prices to consumers and possibly result in shortages owing to the massive amount of agricultural land moved from food production into forestry. The mad rush to biofuels has resulted in price hikes and shortages of food and this policy can only exacerbate the problem.

It is no surprise to see a poll today showing that Turnbull would be defeated by a Julia Gillard led government in an election, the Liberals are offering no real opposition.

Australia seems to be determined to cut the throat of its productive sector in order to show the world how to do it.

Other National Party Senators, Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash, and John Williams have supported Ron. The ‘Liberal Revolt’ Bill Heffernan alluded to has appeared to fizzle, although I have not been able to confirm if the above senators received other support. I will update if they have.

CARBON SINKS AND CPRS - THE ROAD TO A GREEN BRUTOPIA

“Carbon sinks are the down payment on a fundamental restructuring of the economy to be achieved by the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme,” said The Nationals’ Senator Ron Boswell today.

The senate was debating a motion to disallow the Environmental and Natural Resource Management Guidelines made under Subsection 40-1010(3) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

“These guidelines facilitate a tax deduction for establishing carbon sinks which has the potential to distort land prices in major agricultural regions, moving food growing land to carbon sink land and undermining food security.”

“These guidelines artificially inflate the price of land out of reach of farmers who cannot afford the prices being paid by the carbon sink operators. This has the ongoing effect of weakening those strong farmers who can’t expand the size of their holdings.”

“As a result, more and more land will be taken from farming and food land and tied up in carbon sinks for generations. These guidelines create a discriminatory tax benefit with similar effects to the Managed Investment Schemes.”

“The importance of food producing land and food security in Australia is undermined through these tax incentive guidelines.”
“Today it is about impaired food security and the viability of rural communities and infrastructure. Tomorrow or certainly by 2010, it will be about the Emissions Trading Scheme, the equivalent of adding two bonds markets onto our financial system or $120 bn of issuances over 10 years (according to the Australian Securities Exchange General Manager, Anthony Collins).”

Senator Boswell said that it was not just the farmers, the millers and processors who are worried. “It’s the unions as well who opposed these guidelines in their submission to the senate inquiry”.

“Treasury modeling refers to ‘the Garnaut 25 scenario’ [that] sees around 40 million hectares of new forestry plantations established from 2005 to 2050’. The total area sown to winter crops in Australia 2008-09 was estimated to be slightly less than 22 million hectares.”

“This raises the question that if we put 40m ha into new forestry, where on earth do we put those millions of kangaroos that we’re supposed to farm according to Garnaut?”

Senator Boswell also pointed to answers just received from estimates that show the government does not know what their cost blowout will be under a CPRS.

“They haven’t done the work on it. Think of all the emissions from department buildings and cars. They expect business to cop it sweet and be ready in 2010 when government departments have not done their own carbon sums.”

“We must hold off from establishing an ETS before Copenhagen at least. It is crazy to self sacrifice jobs and exports with no chance of taking any carbon ground if the rest of the world is not with us in the trenches”.

“If this disallowance motion fails, then we have taken the first step in ushering in a Green Brutopia.”

“If there are moves that reduce food farming land, then tax the resource and energy intensive industries, then Australia is no longer Australia. We will be a land of forests and misery. We will be poor and unable to help the poorer.”

“We will be unemployed and unable to offer jobs to future generations.”