1/ Turn off lights your not using
2/ Turn off all standby power (yes sorry, cant do that with the remote)
3/ Use power when it is the cheapest (put the dishwasher, Dryer or washing machine on just before you go to bed)
4/ Get solar panels on your roof.
5/ Set your aircon at 21 degrees not 30!
6/ wear ugg boots and a jumper and turn the aircon off!
7/ when your 50watt halogen globes blow replace then with 35watts that offer the same brightness (actually I think there are even more efficient ones available now)
8/ don’t fill your kettle to boil one cup of water.
9/ give up smoking and drinking
10/ Don the lycra and ride your bike to work.
If you do that the carbon tax won’t effect you at all. So if I hear anyone whinge about it again, in the paper, on the radio or where ever I am going to scream! The future is in your hands, be smart not lazy! This is what the carbon tax is designed to do, make us all change our habits. It is a great idea. How do you make people change, charge them if they don’t. I’m up for the challenge!
SAVE THE PLANET
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Positive way of looking at it I guess. its not the fact that they are taxing us more its just the deceptive way they have gone about it. Why couldnt they just tell the public they intended on taxing us more.
oh well. i guess i will just have to go take me some altered landscapes to make me feel better.
Dan
there will be lots of altered landscapes in the Kimberley soon Dan if Barnett the butcher has his way!
This is a good thing. It is high time something was done about it. For a long time, I do not know the current statistics, but for a long time Australia was the world leader of greenhouse gas emissions per capita.
We (and by we I mean wealthy western countries incl. my own) have become spoilt and take everything for granted. It is not healthy for humans, we turn into never-satisfied never-happy couch potatoes wanting more.
We only have one planet, we must do a better job of protecting it.
3PO over and out
too right 3po, we are spoilt, you have spent a lot of time in the 3rd world so you are qualified to talk about this stuff.
I know most people think they are very lucky but very people are willing to do anything about it.
Give up drinking? Are you barmy!?!
Conserve, economize, recycle, reuse and don’t pollute. AGW is a flea on an elephant compared to waste and pollution. Let the carbon tax promoters work first on being sensible stewards of the existing world before they start mucking about in future potential calamities.
Before you ascribe this to yet another hypocritical Yank, consider that we raise and grow 75-80% of our food and heat with wood, not coal or electric. Now, if we could only live in Australia where we could make our own wine and grow coffee!!!
what more would you need Steve!! yummy!
Does that mean I can wear Ugg Boots to work????
yep and a wooly jumper too Kym.
If 9 out of 10 australians are compensated for the passed on costs by the ‘big polluters’ then i dont think anyone will change their ways…they don’t need to.
thats right Matt, it isn’t a good idea in my mind but it is a start.
Price of fuel is the one I’m worried about… love my road trips!
enjoy them whilst you can Dan, the days are numbered! I heard one expert say, get your overseas travel done in the next couple of years. After that it will be far too expensive. It is good mate, the sooner we run out of oil the sooner all the alternatives will be unveiled.
While these tips help you saving your money the carbon tax has absolutely nothing to do with real carbon pollution or climate change. The carbon tax is designed to redistribute money. Basically it’s just another Australian tax reform – take money from one pocket and put it into another pocket, but it doesn’t help to save the world. We (as regular citizens) are producing very little green house gas. Industry – they are polluting, but how this carbon tax stops them doing that? They will just raise the price for everything to compensate their loss. So, sorry guys, but I do not beleive in the carbon tax.
Now there’s a can of worms
We, as regular citizens may not be producing much but industry is working for who? Industry makes products for us to use, so really, we are individually all responsible. So polluter A and polluter B get charged the carbon tax and that gets passed on to us. Then polluter A cleans up its act and gets its carbon tax bill reduced, they then reduce their price to us the clients. More clients stop buying the products from polluter B because they can now get the dame products from “smaller” polluter A at a lesser price. I bet you that polluter B will start looking at how they can clean up their act.
There will never be any solutions that make everybody happy and as someone said in another forum, “doing nothing is no longer a tenable alternative”.
As CF says, we have to start somewhere, I’m up for the challenge too.
André, I’m sorry but that is not going to work that way. Prices always rise and never drop in long term (I’m not talking about season sales). So if polluter A and polluter B rise their prices then even if polluter A cleans up its act and gets its carbon tax bill reduced, they then NEVER EVER reduce their price to clients. Imagine you can make 300% profit would you reduce it to 200% in favour of the clients if the other sellers have the same selling price? Nah! At least not in Australia. That is proven – Aussie are paying double or triple prices for the same stuff then in USA, counting it’s produced in China. Shipping price from China to Au and the same as from China to USA. So I’m just wondering why we pay more? To cut the long story. Prices never drop in long term. They always rise. So it will be for “carbon tax”. Polluters just will not reduce their prices and that’s all.
I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree
Lets say your scenario is true due to lack of competition in a small market as Australia, however, polluter A could be showing that it is a lesser polluter and from that perspective, can still gain a market advantage over polluter B, so then that would/could also force polluter B to clean up its act. I certainly would be more inclined to buy my products from a company that is better on our environment. In the end of this scenario, the environment also wins, which in the long term, our kids, grand-kids, planet etc also win.
It should work like that in ideal world. But unfortunately we are living in the real life. Companies are more interested in profit rather than cutting prices and saving the world. If they need to cut all forests they will do it (remember rain-forests in Brazil?). Coal/mining industry in Australia has too much money and very powerful lobby so we still smoking the sky instead of using other energy sources. I’m sorry but I’m not so optimistic on that matter. I just see what happens and have no illusions.
Please don’t understand me wrong. I’m all for saving environment. Personally I’m using 8 of 10 tips from about for years. (Sorry, cannot use solar panels at home and have to use trains instead of bike) But as I said, I’ve got no illusions. Companies are just sooooo greedy. You know what they say? “Yes, we age green, but we cannot drop the prices because we have to pay for … and they are not green so the cost is still high.” I do not believe in humanity and generosity of corporations.
When the sh1t hits the fan Ilya you see humanity band together to help each other out. I think humans are basically good, it is us the first world countries that are spoilt beyond belief. As soon as someone says we have to charge you more for your unbelievably privileged lifestyle we all have hissy fits. We are brats that want the good times to roll on for ever. It is time we got a good hard smack in the arse to put us back on a path that is good for everyone on the planet.
I think anyone who doesn’t want to pay the tax should go live in the 3rd world for a day! I bet no one will complain after that.
Christian, I was living in 3rd world under communists with corruption and bribes for more than 30 years. And I can see the same happening here. I can see the tax issue from a little bit different angle. This tax has nothing to do with cleaning the environment. My point is not about “do we need to save the world or no. yes, we do!”, my point is that the government is saying that this is “carbon tax”, while it’s just another tax reform and taking money from one pocket and put it into another pocket. These money will not go for cleaning environment at all. That’s my point! You probably right, Christian, people should try to live under a different government style – not in the first world. May be in that case people will be not so naïve. Next time the government restrict you with something and say to you: “That for your own good” and you will reply: “I’m happy to pay extra”. Yeah… My first 30 years were spent under “that for your own good”. Nope, sorry that wasn’t for my own good. That’s why I moved off that. Yes, we need to do our bit, but I just cannot see any way this carbon tax helps with the pollution. I’m happy to pay if something is working. For example Medicare – happy to pay for that. That is working. Carbon tax? Is that some kind of joke? Can you explain how this is going to work? May be next year we can talk about that again and see who is right and who is wrong. For some reason I’m sure you’ll change your mind when you see no positive changes at all and only increased prices for everything. If you want to be a leader in saving the world instead of paying that tax you can try to convince the government to stop smoking the sky with coal and use clean energy. But mining industry already bought our government. Do you thing you have even a little chance to stand against their money? I doubt. Companies are more interested in profit rather than saving the world.
PS. Please forgive me my sharp reply. I just saw too much similar sh1t in my life already.
Ilya, why not give a chance to the carbon tax? What if it works? Medicare was fought for, not everyone wanted it I’m sure. Once it was in place, it wasn’t perfect, still isn’t, but it works pretty well, given the chance.
We aren’t in a communist system here, next election is in 2013 so we don’t get stuck with the same government like you used to back in your home country.
For those that won’t be compensated, is $9.90 a week going to be that big of an imposition? So I have to save a bit longer to get my new lens? Two cups of coffee less, one pack of cigarettes, …..
Certainly the carbon emissions wasted by our politicians going around the country could be put to better use. Sure argue for or against but doing it this way? Get back to parliament in a few weeks and argue there. It’s not even a submitted piece of legislation yet!!
It started out the top 1000 polluting companies were going to be taxed. Now it;s dropped to the top 500. so do the other 500 just keep polluting ??
So does someone go around to these companies and measure exactly how many tonnes of carbon they are putting out a day so they can be taxed the correct amount.??
The hidden agenda is GST. All extra costs passed on are going to raise a lot of GST income for the Govt , who do you think is going to pay that, we are.
When the companies get their act together and fix their carbon problem (if they can) who is going to pay for the massive amount of money these companies will spend on technology to fix the problem, we are.
I’m far from convinced that a tax is the way to go.
Spot on, Merv!
A threshold has been set for levels of pollution where companies will have to pay for carbon emissions. Any company currently paying for carbon emissions that falls below that threshold no longer has to pay. Likewise any company that goes over the threshold will be required to start paying for carbon emissions.
Emissions are self assessed by the companies (like every other tax in Australia) with the Regulatory body monitoring and auditing those companies.
Unfortunately you can’t get around the GST issue and the fact that a move to cleaner energy is going to cost everyone in the long term a little extra, there is no other way short of doing nothing or ruining Australia’s economy.
Government will bear some of the cost of innovation but the public will bear the majority of it, however it will be a lot less than what industry and the Tony Abbott would have you believe.
Michael, thank you for adding an informed voice to this conversation. I am with you, we are at the start of huge changes that must be implemented, we have no choice. Abbott should not be getting any airtime on this matter, we should all look at ourselves and think we are the generation to fix the problems not make them worse, if we don’t then what sort of planet do we leave for our kids.
we have to pay for our brilliant lifestyles some day Merv. Maybe we should go and live in China or India. No thanks I’m happy to pay extra to live in Australia.
I guess, call me an optimist maybe even a dreamer, I do believe in humanity. Sure, there can be bad apples in the basket but that doesn’t mean all apples are bad. Also to me, a step forward is better then staying still. The tax may be a small step, maybe even not a great step but lets start doing something. Why do we have to wait for everybody else to start? If everybody thinks that way, nobody ever starts!! Somebody needs to move.
That is it Andre, time to be leaders, after all we are per head of population one of the worst offending countries on the planet. Everyone keeps blaming China and India but they only want what we have had for decades. We need to lead by example not tell them they have to stop polluting. Imagine if someone said to us, ok you guys don’t get TV’s, fridges, big cars and big houses anymore, we would say piss off! That is exactly what they will say if we try it on them. There is no way we can dictate to the 3rd world how they should live.
Give the labour/green government their due, at least they are calling it a TAX !! Thats what what happens when you run up more dept than you can handle and you have to dream up a new tax to try and pull yourself out of the shit, thats all this is and it will do nothing to save the planet I’m afraid. I may be a cynic but this is all just a big game to these guys in my eyes and reality has very little to do with it.
Hey guys, thought I would add my bit on the Carbon Price. Whilst 9 out of 10 may be receiving some form of compensation, only 40-50% of australians will be fully compensated with the majority of the remaining 50% receiving very minimal to no compensation. The government knows that to drive reform towards cleaner energy it is the middle class that will do the majority of the heavy lifting towards changing attitudes and hence they will bear the cost of carbon pricing. By placing a price on carbon and offering assistance to industry the government is kick starting the clean energy market to allow industry to innovate which will eventually lead to newer cleaner technologies that are economical.
Companies exist to make a profit, there is no getting around that, but all it takes is one major competitor to move towards renewable energy and you will soon see the rest follow suit as we do live in a competitive market and failing to do so will mean being left behind, especially when the country moves to an Emissions Trading Scheme. The 500 companies that will pay for carbon pollution are some of the biggest companies operating in Australia and generate something in the vicinity of 80% of Australia’s carbon emissions so they will be looking for ways to innovate to keep their overheads down and ensure their futures as this issue is not going away.
You have to remember that this is the start of a major Socio Economic reform in Australia and there is no quick fix and reform could take decades but we have to start somewhere. Believe me, Carbon Pricing and then ultimately moving to an Emissions Trading Scheme is the most economical way to reduce emissions and move to a cleaner future. Unfortunately the cost of not taking action far outweighs having to fork out an additional $1,000/year.
Personally, I think it should be called a Pollution Tax, whether it is carbon or any other atmosphere changing compound. That is what we are trying to reduce isn’t it? That way it makes it expensive to pollute and then you may see a change in behaviour. Look what happened with CFC and the ozone layer!
I agree it should Tim. In my mind you have to make peope pay, that is the only way to make them stop doing anything. Remember when petrol went up, people started ring bikes to work, driving slower etc. They were changing their ways because it was costing them. I love power costs going up, water should too. We waste so much, we are so privileged to have these things that most of the world would kill for, and one day they probably will, if they aren’t doing it already.
I’m scared that I may come under scrutiny for my personal emissions!!!!
It’s just another Labor tax grab. They spend irresponsibly and then need to get that money back somehow. Something needs to be done, but I still can’t see how this will reduce carbon emissions. In a perfect world yes, but when the bottom line to companies boards are the most important thing, why should they reduce carbon emissions if they can just pass on the tax to consumers?
Use LED 9W as a direct replacement for the halogen 50W. Use 18% of the power and they are just as bright!!!
that is the ultimate Andrew. Do you know of affordable ones yet. In our last house we got our energy use down to 5 units per day. How did we do it? Stopped watching our Plasma TV and turned out the lights. We had one low powered lamp on and it was a beautiful ambient light, mood lighting you could say. We still had our laptops charged every day and if we want to watch something it could be streamed off the net. We produced 9 to 11 units of electricity with our solar panels every day so we were in front for most of the year.
I agree with CF and Andre – whatever cynical way you want to look at the tax, we all need to do our bit on a personal level. The simple steps outlined above are surely a great way to do our small bit to look after the planet. Forget the politics. Live simply.
exactly David. We can’t sit on our hands anymore until we can’t grow crops, there is no water, the seas are dead and the air isn’t breathable. Imagine the cost to try and fix that. We need to start paying for our extravagant lifestyles now. There is no argument from Scientists and economists about the path we must take. Why is it there are so many armchair experts that don’t know anything other than what they hear on Fox news or propaganda by big companies that stand to loose profits for their shareholders.
I believe the experts that don’t stand to loose anything other than our planet. The others that are sceptics are only worried about short term profits. Ask them what they stand to loose if they act to reduce their carbon footprint! It will be PROFITS.
Agree with Andrew – LED’s are a direct replacement and last so much longer and consume far less power.
I support the Carbon Tax and support the extra funding that will go into low carbon energy sources, we have so much potential in Australia.
CF – Point 3 is only applicable if you have a smart power enable home – for those interested go and have a look here could save $$
https://www.synergy.net.au/at_home/smartpower.xhtml
For those who havent taken up the Water Corps shower head swap, do it, the heads are pretty decent and its free to swap 2 per household! Also those in regional areas can get great incentives to install water tanks and utilise grey water.
http://www.watercorporation.com.au/
Bring on the R&D and Science to give us a cleaner greener future. Oh and wheres my electric vehicle?
bring it on indeed, I can’t wait Ben. It will be exciting to see the innovation away from a carbon based society.
I think the point is we all need to start doing more for our planet regardless of governments and taxes. Living in a very new area I’m quite disappointed to see that very few houses even have solar panels for their hot water systems (of the 50 or so houses within our local streets we are 1 of only half a dozen or so). We personally looked into getting solar panels for our house but even with the subsidies it is a large amount of money that we just don’t have. When we are having to fork out money each week for our gas and water it is hard to get ahead to be able to afford these things. Perhaps if these taxes were put back into funding sustainable living subsidies to make it affordable for the masses, not just the rich few?
I don’t know what the answer is and we can fight it out in words here but in the end any step in the right direction (whether it has the desired effect or not) is a good step. At least we have a government who is willing to do something about an identified global problem.
We can all do many things to reduce our carbon footprint, we just have to stop being lazy and think of not only the monetary costs, but the costs to our futures. We only have one planet!
Well said Jasmin
Solar panels on all new houses should be mandatory, different ways of creating engery i.e. wind mills should be being used. We can all make a personal difference too. And noboday should vote for Barnett again!
I’m happy to pay a carbon tax and I don’t even have a dish washer!…. oh yeah I do… two teenage boys.