Friday 4 March 2011

by Mat Churchill


Frustration. That's the only word that comes to mind every time I see our elected leaders in the media. It has got so bad lately that even when the topic they're discussing is close to my heart I just can't listen to them.

The latest issue that is getting on my wick is the carbon tax Julia Gillard is planning to introduce.

Tony Abbott has predictably attempted to use the introduction of a carbon tax to his political favour. But he was always going to do that. In fact, you can pretty much expect the same response from him on any major environmental reform. The man is, after all, a self-confessed climate change non-believer (yes there are still some left).

Worse still, he's forcing his party members to leave their personal views on climate change out of it so they can focus on attacking the government. Here's a snippet of what was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday:

"Tony Abbott has ordered his troops to focus on the government during what will be a protracted climate change debate and to shelve their personal views so they do not become distracted by an internal fight over whether global warming is real."

Who is this guy?

Despite the overwhelming evidence that people are having an adverse effect on the climate, skeptics still manage to dig up some data which they say proves the whole thing is a plot to sell more papers.

But let me put it this way, if you went to 100 doctors and 99 of them told you that you were sick, would you believe the 99, or the one who says differently?

Sure you might cling to the hope that he or she knows something the others don't, but chances are that temperature you've suffered from will develop into something much more serious.

Mr Abbott has promised to scrap the carbon tax if his party win government. He also plans to scrap the mining tax. Why? Because he promotes fear in the community. Lost jobs, higher prices for food and petrol and energy. Meanwhile mining companies are making billions upon billions using public resources they get given for a song.

Yes they employ a lot of people. Yes they pay well. Yes they can easily afford to.
Has anyone stopped to think that maybe we in Australia have had things too good for too long? Perhaps we are now only starting to realise the true cost of living in the way we've become accustomed.

Personally, I am happy to pay the carbon tax as there are many more things I can do personally to reduce my carbon emissions (it's taxes like stamp duty and capital gains that Mr Abbott should be up in arms about).

Politicians are supposed to be our elected leaders. To lead means making hard decisions for the good of the country and that may very well include transitioning industries from being unsustainable to sustainable even if it costs jobs in the short term. Change or die. It's an expression that shouldn't just be employed in business.

Julia Gillard said that Australia won't lead the world in fighting climate change. The disturbing thing is that she said it almost with pride, trying to reassure the Australian public. Surely leading the world has its advantages; creating new industry (and jobs) through new technology is just one that springs to mind.

In my opinion being a career politician is not about leading, it's about undermining every move your opponent makes (perhaps we should have an undermining tax whereby politicians pay a levy for blindly opposing good ideas).

It's about bullying the new kid who looks and thinks differently until they break, or disappear altogether.

The bickering, name calling, back stabbing, and pointlessness of it all makes communism look pretty bloody inviting (apart from the whole dictatorship thing).

I'm sure if we could harness the energy that is emitted from people's frustrations about our 'leaders' and their mind-boggling inaction we could solve the climate issue on one fell swoop. There's a seemingly endless supply.