Most Australians do not fully appreciate how perilously close our country came to having a totally unnecessary, economy-destroying “Emissions Trading Scheme” - or indeed how fortunate we were to avoid it.
Had this frighteningly dangerous bill been passed by the Senate, Australia would have been changed forever - from a prosperous, mostly free-enterprise nation into an over-regulated uncompetitive third world country.
Australia’s competiveness, prosperity and ability to create future wealth would have been drastically reduced by the effects of an ETS. Business and household costs would have gone through the roof. We would be much poorer than we are now.
Additionally a massive ETS bureaucracy would be set up - collecting vast sums of money and re-distributing it by way of an enormous slush fund to finance cozy deals for union-affiliated “green businesses”. In other words only lazy, unproductive socialists would benefit. That is until the money ran out. Then, of course, everyone would lose. Australia would become a banana republic with a “leader” in the style of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s extreme left-wing President.
The election of straight-talking, clear-thinking Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition has saved Australia from ruin – at least for the moment.
However, and fortunately, the voters now have a clear choice between the big (wasteful) spending, high taxing, over-regulated and increasingly leftist government of Kevin Rudd complete with an ETS; or the measured spending, low taxation, minimum regulation and a clear direction under a future Abbott Government, with no ETS.
And finally, whether one believes in the theory of man-caused-climate-change or not, and as Tony Abbott wisely says: “it would be "folly" for Australia to establish an emissions trading scheme before the United States had settled on its model.”
Yours truly,
Dave Wane
5th December, 2009
This letter was submitted to the NT News on two occasions, but never published.
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