Let the Australian electorate decide if they want the Carbon Tax to stay or be repealed – do they want to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Renewable Energy Target and the Climate Change Authority ? If not – do they want a return to a GreenLabor Government? If so let them vote for it. Does the electorate want more of the Palmer United Party – OK let Australians vote for that.
The new Govt elected in September 2013 with a large majority in the House of Representatives clearly can not govern as it was elected to because of the Senate – so might as well be voted out than remain a “lame duck” constantly watering down policy in haggling for support from Independent and PUP Senators.
What do readers think ? Antony Green thinks it is OK for the Abbott Govt to continue as a lame duck.
Probably best to wait until Bill Shorten, Stephen Conroy & the whole corrupt union controlled ALP machine is thoroughly exposed as the amoral mess that it is. If there is anybody left to salvage the wreckage they will probably need a new name & a new constitution.
It will not be long before the syncopantic MSM will find itself running out of excuses to hide & justify their mates.
Wait until the polls turn.
It isn’t necessary to abolish the RET, just issue more RET certificates. “Tony says Yes to Solar. Doubles No. of certificates” etc. The price falls as the supply increases but the demand doesn’t. If doubling doesn’t work, double them again and again until they are worth no more than toilet paper.
Those against the charade will understand and those confused by “saving the planet” will be confused (more than usual).
That is a great idea Graeme No.3, in fact there are a lot of things the Libs could do to defang all the climate change regulations. Instead of having a barney with the Senate about the carbon tax they could have just set the rate to zero by regulation. They could also demand that the Clean Energy fund be spent on their Direct Action.
Whilst I am a conservative at heart, this government seems to have the ability to find the hardest way possible to achieve things with the possible exception of illegal migrants, they hit the mark pretty smartly on that one which indicates good planning and use of strategy. They should do it more often though.
Unfortunately, a double dissolution halves the quota which will get in more greens and other minor parties. What is needed first is a referendum to halve the number of senators. USA has only 60 senators Australia has 80. Next the number of individual members a party has to be registered should be lifted to 5000. Then there should be no public money granted for any individual (or any party) who gets less than 5% of first preference votes at the ballot. Finally, any individual who gets less than 2% of first preferences of the total votes cast should be eliminated (in order of lowest votes) in the count regardless of second preferences and their preferences distributed to those getting above 2%. This would fix the ballot paper and reduce the greens to 1 or 2 (or even to nil) in 40 (compared to 10 in 80)
The problem is that much of the electorate likes the freebies and handouts of Labour and the PUPs and Greens, and would vote for them. There is no appreciation of the financial irresponsibility involved in these bribes. People have very close horizons in these matters.
I would not worry about the current poor Coalition polling. Polls should tighten into the election if a good campaign is run.
I also do not think Govt should be put off by the structural problems of the Senate. If they win the DD then they can at least pass all their “trigger bills” at the joint sitting. Then presumably they have their main 2013 policy planks in place – 2014 budget in place – and could look forward 3 years to the next election. If they lose the DD then the electorate is stuck with GreenLabor again – if voters choose that then that is what they deserve. Better than the current Govt being a lame duck for another 2 years.
The Govt is already suffering from their laziness in 2013 – they should have pulled on a mini-budget by December while memories of GreenLabor were fresh.
They have some strong themes to run on into a DD –
If you want the Carbon Tax to stay –
If you want your power bills to constantly rise due to increasing influence of wind & rooftop solar –
If you do not see the need to maintain a stable 24/7 electricity supply for our nation –
If you want the mining tax to return in some new form –
If you want our defences weakened –
If you want the return of 50,000 country shoppers to our shores every year –
If you want a Govt that initiates more grandiose unfunded big spending plans that blow our budget –
If you want an Australia where it is so difficult to build a new water supply dam –
If you want to increasingly pay the costs of fighting global climate change in every area of our life –
It is so simple – just vote GreenLabor back into power.