“Cap-n-Tax will eat the heart out of Australia”.

Cartoon: by Ramirez. (Click to enlarge)

By Viv Forbes,

  Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that the Emissions Trading Scheme would eat the heart out of regional Australia by destroying jobs in mining, processing, construction, farming, forestry, transport and tourism.

In a submission to the Australian Senate Economics Committee, the Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the mis-named “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” had nothing to do with carbon or pollution - “it is essentially a cap and a tax on carbon dioxide, the harmless, colourless natural gas that sustains all life on earth”.

“To cut man’s emissions of carbon dioxide, we need to curb electricity generation, cement manufacture, mining, smelting, refining, all forms of transport, farm and earth moving machinery, all farmed animals, forestry and construction. In return they would have us believe that the inland will survive when these once vibrant industries are replaced by feral forests feeding on carbon credits, vast mobs of kangaroos, regiments of becalmed wind towers, treeless tracts of ethanol crops and deserts of solar panels.

“California and Spain have proved that the war on carbon dioxide will kill real jobs faster than fake green jobs can be created. At the same time, the silly claims that alternate energy can provide continuous, economical and reliable power will encourage neglect of Australia’s key reliable low cost electricity source - coal power.

“When the lights go out, industry migrates to Asia and our power bills soar, it will be too late to prevent great harm to our economy, our jobs and our life style.

“The global warming hysteria has passed its zenith. The recession is already cutting industrial emissions, and natural cycles are cooling the weather. And the flimsy scientific basis for the hysteria is being demolished daily by a growing army of sceptics.

“Depopulating the outback is not a sensible policy for any Australian Government. The Senate should refuse to pass this dangerous and unnecessary legislation.”

The detailed submission from the Carbon Sense Coalition can be found here.

info@carbon-sense.com www.carbon-sense.com.

Featured Blog: Kevin Rudd R Less.

I have no idea who does this site but it’s brilliant. The author has obviously taken the time to really get into the mind of Kevin Rudd, which is a scary thought. Generally it tends to be a faux diary of Kevin and his day-to-day thoughts. The post I am reproducing is one from after the 20/20 summit.

Summit confirms my brilliance 

I threw open the windows to let in a bit of fresh air, urged everyone to take hold of the future, to seize the day with our fundamental value of an irreducible human dignity.

As usual I undersold the Summit, didn't want to raise expectations.

So what did I get from my handpicked group of left leaning superior beings?

They overwhelmingly voted to support ALP policy and get us a Republic! In fact the 100 people in the Governance group voted 98-2 in favor of a republic. What an endorsement.
98% of less than 0.0005% of the population has officially endorsed ALP policy. Now that's the sort of break through idea I wanted.

I also got my childcare super centre endorsed, it's my new idea but I'm happy the UK and Victoria have already implemented it. It was part of another brilliant revelation reinforced by my echo Julia. Kids need education to develop their brains... Unbelievable, if it wasn't for the Summit that would never have come out!

Other significant ideas were that everyone should be like Kevin and speak Mandarin.

It delivered more than I could have hoped for and reinforced that I am in fact the man most suited to be leading the Republic of Australia in 2020 as its President and Supreme Commander.

That got 100% endorsement from my Summiteers.

“Earth Hour or Blackout Night?”

Cartoon: By "Fewings."

“Earth Hour or Blackout Night?”

A statement by Viv Forbes, Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition.

28 March 2009

The Carbon Sense Coalition today came out in support of Earth Hour, but said it should be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year - 22 June in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that spending just one night in the cold and the dark, with no hot coffee or beef on the barbecue, using no light, heat or vehicle energy from coal, gas, petrol or diesel, and without protection from metal or concrete structures, would be good practice for the blackouts and shortages to come if world rationing of carbon products and carbon energy is achieved.

“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can really experience what it will be like to depend on alternative energy when there is no sun and no wind. The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls. And the eat-no-meat mob can experience a night without hamburgers and cappuccinos.

“To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is tokenism. Moreover both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.

“Instead of sneering at human achievements they should salute the people who keep the lights on for the other 364 days of the year.

“Australia gets almost 90% of its electricity from hydrocarbon fuels – black coal, brown coal, gas and oil. And without the nuclear power that underpins electricity supplies in more advanced countries, the massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions demanded by the deep greens would see Australia headed for the Romanian power rationing experience - during the Ceaucescu regime in Romania, each house was limited to ONE 25 watt bulb for all of their light.

“All over the world we have aging power stations and an orchestrated campaign by a few warm and well-fed agitators to harass, delay and deter construction of new power facilities.

“Such a campaign can only have one result – blackouts and brownouts will recur erratically every time we have extremes of cold or hot weather.

“So we support “Blackout Night” to prepare our population for the dark days ahead”.

Viv Forbes
Chairman
The Carbon Sense Coalition

info@carbon-sense.com www.carbon-sense.com.

The Carbon Sense Coalition was formed by Australians concerned at the baseless demonisation of carbon dioxide by an unholy alliance of pagan earth worshippers, vested business interests and political and media opportunists. Support for “Carbon Sense” is growing rapidly. The Coalition aims to expose the lack of scientific support for the anti-carbon campaign, and the real and present threat to our industries and jobs if any of the current proposals for Emissions Trading Taxes or Carbon Taxes are enacted.

Scrap the Cap-n-Tax Scheme

Cartoon: by "Mackay."

From Viv Forbes of the Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Carbon Sense Coalition has made a submission to the Economics Committee of the Australian Senate, which is looking into the Draft (and daft) Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill, known for short as the “Cap-n-Tax Scheme.”

The following is a brief excerpt of the contents of what is a very detailed and in depth analysis of the proposal, including the flaws in both the economics and the science, and areas which require a great deal of research prior to any introduction of carbon taxes. Those who will be affected by the governments proposals, which is in fact everybody are advised to read the entire submission.

“The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence: 

“The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the long term effects of any act or policy: it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group, but for all groups.” Henry Hazlitt “Economics in one Lesson”

1. The Important Matters 

This Senate Economics Committee is charged with the responsibility of assessing the economics effects of bills put before it.

This enquiry is focused on The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009. The name itself is a deliberate deception – the only truthful word is “Scheme” which the Oxford Pocket Dictionary defines as “artful or underhand design”. It is not about carbon or about pollution - it is “The Carbon Dioxide Cap, Trade and Tax Scheme Bill” (referred to hereafter as “The Cap-n-Tax Scheme” or “The Scheme” for short).

There is substantial doubt on the science on which this Scheme is justified. The chief justification is scare forecasts based on complex computerized climate models that few people believe and even fewer people understand. However, on the understanding that the science will be the basis of a separate full enquiry by the Senate Climate Change Committee, the scientific aspects of these matters will not be pursued in detail here. The Economics Committee, however, has a responsibility to look into all of the economic aspects, which include:

[…]

2. Is there a Sound Economic Justification? 

If implemented fully, the Cap-n-Tax Scheme will result in a massive dislocation of the
Australian economy. Huge funds will be transferred from viable carbon-based economic activities to favored community groups; to subsidized speculative alternate energy investments of dubious investment merit; to a biased selection of research activities; and in supporting a large expansion in government regulatory activities.

Any Scheme that proposes to forcibly transfer such massive amounts of money from one group of people to another needs a very detailed and competent cost benefit analysis.
The Senate committee needs to commission an independent enquiry into whether this has been done.

There are grave concerns within the community that neither the British Stern Report nor the Australian look-alike produced by Professor Garnaut would stand critical independent scrutiny.

[…]

In conclusion, the Carbon Sense Coalition is totally opposed to the introduction of any taxes on emissions of the harmless plant food carbon dioxide.
It also believes that the Cap-n-Tax Scheme proposed is poorly researched and the
Economics Committee of the Senate would be delinquent in their duty if they did not commission independent enquiries into:

 A cost-benefit analysis of the proposal done to the standards required for a prospectus seeking to raise very large funds from the public.

 The basis and reliability of the climate forecasts on which this Scheme is based.

 Whether this Scheme is based on good tax principles or whether a simple carbon tax would achieve the same results cheaper, with easier exit strategy and with less long term cost. And why there is no Sunset Clause.

 Why the Minister has not made repeal of all the other carbon-cutting state and federal regulations a condition of passage of this Scheme.

 The cost and feasibility of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from base load power generation, and the risks posed by this Scheme to existing electricity generating capacity.

 The costs and benefits of Australia taking a leading world position in demonizing our biggest export earners, coal, cattle, tourism, metals and sheep.

 The likely effect of increasing the costs for carbon fuels on our outback and regional industries.

 The public support for massive transfers of money, jobs, businesses and technology from Australia to overseas locations.

This Cap-n-Tax Scheme should be rejected outright, as should its pale cousin, the Carbon Tax.

info@carbon-sense.com 

This submission was prepared by individual members of the Carbon Sense Coalition on their own initiative with no inducements or policy directions from any other groups. Many Coalition members are taxpayers, shareholders and consumers in interests likely to be affected by this Scheme. They declare a vested interest in ensuring that this does not savage the backbone industries of Australia ill timed and poorly designed initiative. They fear for the costs and capacity of the future electricity generating system and for the future of real jobs for their kids and grandkids.

Daniel Hannan slams Browns "Tomorrow the World" speech.

"Now never in recent years have we had an America leadership so keen to cooperate at all levels with Europe on financial stability, on climate change, on security, on development, and seldom has such cooperation been so obviously of benefit to the whole world.

So starting with the EU-US Summit a few days from now, when President Obama comes to Prague, we can transform that summit from just an annual meeting into an unstoppable progressive partnership to secure the global change that the world now needs." ..... Gordon Brown, speech to European Parliament. 

Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England, gave a reply that left him without a feather to fly with. I have mentioned Hannan before and am very impressed with his ability to slice an issue to the bone, and leave authoritarians like Brown looking rather silly.



Shortly before Hannan spoke Nigel Farrage lashed Brown mercilessly.

Europeans have a long history of being completely hopeless when it comes to creating a free society; they just aren’t equipped to cope with it. The European form of government is an evolution of tribalism, so Europeans tend to look at the ideal of liberty as collective and by state permission, rather than the American concept of individualism. They don't tend to refer to it as 'liberty', preferring the term 'freedom' as the former tends to be seen by them as a bit extreme.

The American revolution put Washington into the Presidency, a man who established the principle of a two term limit as he maintained that no man should be entrusted with that sort of power for too long. In contrast look what Europe managed:

The British executed their king and installed the religious zealot, Cromwell in his place as a military dictator.

The French executed their king and created the reign of terror, eventually leading to Napoleon Bonaparte and bloodshed across Europe.

Russia executed their Czar and gave the world the Bolsheviks, along with Lenin and Stalin.

Germany got rid of the Kaiser and after some confusion presented the world with Hitler.

Spain gave us Franko, Italy; Mussolini.

We need to ask ourselves; “Are these the people to take a leadership role in world affairs, even with Brown trumpeting, “Unity from diversity?”

Biker Violence: More dangerous gangs in Canberra.

The Independent reports:

A biker war erupted in front of terrified travellers at Sydney airport yesterday as rival gang members fought a pitched battle inside the domestic terminal that ended in one man being bludgeoned to death. …

The government of New South Wales is coming under pressure to enact tougher legislation and clamp down on biker violence. There have been calls for the state to follow the lead of South Australia, which makes membership or association with outlawed clubs illegal, with a 10-year prison term for bikers who take part in group violence. …

Ron Kitching reports:

The rival Motor Cycle gangs have again been in the news. They can certainly be pretty vicious. But we have rival gangs in Canberra too, who do far more damage to the public than any motorcycle gang has ever done.

For instance if a person or a company is successful in business, they tax them heavily. One very successful Canberra gang leader introduced a consumption tax which he named the GST. That tax, taxes everybody, successful or not.

If in the course of exploring for minerals including oil and gas, a successful discovery is made, these gangs take a large slice, which they claim as a “royalty”. In the case of marginal deposits the royalty kills the project altogether.

Then there are some smaller gangs who claim that Mother Earth does not like holes being dug in her and they do their utmost to stop such projects. They have been very successful at lending support to other gangs in exchange for blocking these projects in many areas, in particular uranium mining.

Then when the gang perceives a rival gang in another country to be a danger to their existence, (whether they are or not), they send the Nation’s defense forces to attack the rival gang. Like the bikies, they use real bullets and so does the perceived enemy, so men and civilians on both sides get killed.

There has been talk of banning bikie gangs. Perhaps we ought to look at the larger picture and get rid of the lot of these life-threatening pests.

Labor Candidate pulled out over Free Speech.

Photo: from Gympie Times, Daniel Tabone.

In this weekends election the Labor Party in the seat of Gympie had no official candidate, owing to his resignation when a blog comment he made in late 2006 in support of free speech for Sydney Muslim cleric Sheik Hilaly. The comments by Hilaly were at the time highly controversial, and in the wake of the Sydney cases of pack rape by a Lebanese gang, showed about the same level of PR skills as the AIG bonus deals. At least the AIG people demonstrated the skills required to get the US government to hand them $250 billion, which is no small achievement. LOL

While the statements by Sheik Hilaly were pretty much over the top, especially given the context of the times, he was not advocating violence against women nor in my opinion attempting to inflame the situation. He struck me as out of touch with reality, probably through advancing age.

Australia has a long history of good relations with its Islamic community going back to the early 19th century, and it should remain this way.

The local paper “The Gympie Times” reported:

Labor candidate, Daniel Tabone chose to walk the plank at the weekend (and he insists he was not pushed) over his support for the free speech rights of the Sydney Muslim cleric who compared some scantily clad women to “uncovered meat”.

Mr Tabone made it clear yesterday that he did not support the cleric's remarks or share his opinions but was concerned to defend the right of free speech.

Quoting the French writer Voltaire, he said: “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it”. ….

Mr Tabone insists that he was not sacked by Labor over his remarks, although the word “dumped” has been widely used.

“I got a phone call at the weekend. I was asked very nicely if I would withdraw from the election and I agreed,” the almost ex-candidate said. “I guess I'm too much a person who calls a spade a spade.”

I contacted Daniel to find out the full story and he has been good enough to provide the following information:

The "offending" words

What ever happened to freedom of speech? I don’t believe in any religion , be it Islam or Christianity ( Just Physics thanks ) , But I do believe people should be allowed to express their views freely. If a Christian or Jew made similar comments, would we have the same reaction? Posted by: Daniel Tabone of Qld 7:28am October 29, 2006

He explains:

It was mostly in reply to other blogs attacking him because of his religion and calling for him to be silenced. I would say it again tomorrow if it came up again as I don't think it is offensive if taken in the right context. At the end of the day It's not so important what other people think of me, the important thing is what I think of myself. I am not ashamed of making this comment regardless how the media want to twist it.

He also pointed out: I was a little disappointed about the fact they wouldn't defend my freedom of speech especially when I was just defending someone else's. But it was just a matter of timing I guess.

One of the worst aspects of this incident was the way rival candidates attempted to portray him as supporting the Hilaly statements, (from GT again):

The Greens' Kent Hutton said: “I can't relate to his comments. We live in a multicultural society that works toward harmony. Comments like this are unacceptable and to be condemned.”

Independent Elisa Roberts said: “The ALP dumped Daniel Tabone at the weekend after it was revealed he'd supported derogatory remarks made by Muslim Cleric Sheik Hilaly, about “scantily clad” women, two years ago. ….

Sitting MP David Gibson said: “Gympie is a vibrant community, with a rich diversity of religion, culture and opinion. Our community is built on a solid foundation of tolerance and respect. “The conduct of the Labor candidates is a matter for the internal workings of the Labor party, but ….

Gibson was more moderate in his approach but still left the allusion hanging in the air, the others were disgraceful in their distortion of the facts, or were too dumb to tell the difference between support of a statement, and support of the right to make that statement. I think the Labor Party were in a difficult position where they could have gotten involved in a damaging row about something which was easily distorted and not related to the issues, in an electorate that they had no chance of winning. A quick clean exit was probably good strategy, but in fairness, Mr. Tabone was sacrificed at the altar of expediency for a “crime he didn’t commit.”

Some time ago, when internet censorship was first raised, an article appeared in the local paper, “Hands off our freedom of speech,” by Greg Wildie:

What is unwanted content anyway? Unwanted by whom? I track a number of web sites that many people would see as unwanted. There is no better way to know what the loonies are up to than to watch them at play. The mental gymnastics of the Ku Klux Klan are very enlightening. You might dislike the holocaust deniers, but not everything they say is either inaccurate or bad history.

… Who will make the choices for the banned list? Will our over-religious prime minister balance his team with a few atheists, to ensure the offensively religious sites get the chop? Are Christian and Jewish hate sites going to be banned along with the Islamic media or will we be too lily livered to dump on all sides equally?

 Who will stand up for freedom of speech, freedom of political expression and a plain old fair go for all in this brave new world of Big Brother Kevin? Who will really suffer?

It won't be the child pornography market. Unless Big Brother is going to start opening every letter, parcel and post bag sent in Australia, not unthinkable for the idiots who cooked up this scheme, then the millions of existing images will simply travel by post and increase in value. Much like with every other activity governments have tried to ban, it will merely create a market. Move over ice, kiddie porn is the next big thing. …