Turnbull's suggestion (not at this stage backed by Coalition parties, which are riding the tiger of public anxiety about motor fuel price rises, looking thereby to maximise their short-term political advantage) is a sensible circuit-breaker. Putting motor fuels within a universal carbon trading system would send the right message to the Australian public, that we are all in the climate change alleviation challenge together.
Commensurately removing the fuel excise tax at the same time would send the important message that the government understands the burdens that ordinary people - motorists, farmers - are facing from rising fuel prices in a society that depends on petrol or diesel motors for so much of the way we now produce and live.
Prepare for a lot of powerfully funded special interest lobbying against the Garnaut Report when it is issued. The real risk is that the government will lose its nerve and fudge it.
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We, ordinary citizens concerned about the sustainability of our world, are the stakeholders who really matter in this debate. We, the people, must make our voices heard in all political parties in coming weeks. This will be a vital debate.
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About the Author
Tony Kevin holds degrees in civil engineering, and in economics and political science. He retired from the Australian foreign service in 1998, after a 30-year career during which he served in the Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister’s departments, and was Australia’s ambassador to Poland and Cambodia. He is currently an honorary visiting fellow at the Australian National University’s Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies in Canberra. He has written extensively on Australian foreign, national security, and refugee policies in Australia’s national print media, and is the author of the award-winning books A Certain Maritime Incident – the Sinking of SIEV X, and Walking the Camino: a modern pilgrimage to Santiago. His third book on the global climate crisis, Crunch Time: Using and abusing Keynes to fight the twin crises of our era was published by Scribe in September 2009.
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