I'm afraid you are right Lyn, the Carbon Tax will almost certainly go. But I predict there will be a fairly sharp fall in immigrants over the next few years, especially in the temporary category as the economy contracts. It has been high for the last eight years while we had the boom run.

I have just returned to on_line_opinion to read if any entries were worth reading. Your argement is excellent, but your life experience is limited to your experiences & what these scientists & politatians say in assisting your argument.

What is needed at the present time is 'drought relief' for the farmers & graziers as well as the small shrinking towns of our inland country. They support you in times of plenty & now whatever 'Party' rules this country for the next term will have to assist our farmers.

< On these issues Abbott and his team, in my view, deserves the thumbs down. >

Totally with you there, Lyn!

I reckon we are about to find out that Abbott’s antienvironmental antisustainability antifuture pro-rapid-growth in-bed-with-the-big-end-of-town same old same old dinosaur politics is exactly what this country DOESN’T need!

I just hope to goodness that Labor sees the absolute necessity to change while in opposition, gets itself in sustainability-paradigm mode and thus sets itself up for a big win at the following election!

I believe in a fair go.
Given none of us have crystal balls, which I'm reliably informed, is a very painful condition, and makes bareback horse riding a shatteringly pain-filled experience, one can't see what Tony Abbott will do!
His prognostications of a Labour budget blowout of some 400 billions, may well give him plenty of fiscal wriggle room and someone else to blame for a future budget bottom line, given the net projected future debt number, is just 184 billions, or more than 200 billions less than the coalition is currently touting?
What happens if Tony has vision and a new plan to completely reform the tax act, to end all tax avoidance?
The end of all avoidance, would allow some very generous tax reductions/concessions, which would work equally for all, but particularly for the least among us, with a simple and progressive raising of the threshold!
He plans to keep Labor's health education funding; the higher indexed pensions and NDIS.
Where's the meanness in that?
There's a thirty percent bounty to be redeemed, just by rationalizing State and Federal responsibilities, and the end of time wasting, time consuming duplication.
More regional autonomy in health and education; and more pro rata funding, indexed for distance from the capital, as the model, would also save mucho plenty money.
Mostly clawed back from entirely unnecessary, centralist, city centric, empire building, bureaucratic administrations.
And Tassie ought to be helped to get back on her own financial feet, rather than be endlessly subsidized by the tax payer.
If they were allowed to complete the NBN; had a couple of decent irrigation systems and a very fast ferry service to carry their still fresh produce to the mainland, that would do it!
No other subsidized help would be needed; in fact just the opposite, with them being able to eventually confer some help on other less well performing mainland states!?
As an ancestor might have remarked.
Tony could well say, I'm ainy canny, nae mean!?
Rhrosty.

Lyn time to grow up.

It's over love. Global warming is finished & in it's death throes.

Hell even in Germany, where the whole thing grew into billions of wasted money, it was not even mentioned in their election debate.

The European politicians just want it to go away, so as not to be embarrassed by their stupidity in falling for it.

Please go back to something you perhaps understand, rather than trying to drag dead horses into the election.

With 100% of the world presently having a far lower carbon tax burden and most having none at all. The world's biggest carbon tax is having a ruinous effect on business, having contributed to the closure of the smelters, it is placing a huge burden on all manufacturing when they are facing fierce competition from countries with no tax.

A carbon tax would be the most efficient method of reducing emissions if our trading partners had a carbon tax at a similar level. Until then the direct action plan is the most efficient at actually reducing emissions rather than sending them overseas.