"PRIME Minister Julia Gillard's carbon pricing sales pitch has been dealt a fresh blow after one of the country's top retailers declared the policy was partly to blame for a dramatic collapse in consumer confidence."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/consumer-woes-fresh-blow-to-gillard/story-e6frf7jx-1226094929271

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/confidence-in-gillards-competence-is-ebbing/story-e6frg9px-1226095578092

Concern is turning to frustrated anger, with the carbon tax seen as more unwelcome evidence of Canberra's inability to comprehend the forces operating in business and the economy.

That includes a much gloomier outlook for business conditions than national economic statistics indicate. There is a growing fear that the government is, unwittingly, risking the very advantages that have caused the Australian economy to perform so much better than other developed economies. There is also a fear that it is totally unprepared for the problems that will result from ill-considered, ill-timed and internally inconsistent policies -- let alone the very real prospect of more big global economic shocks.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment last week showing a dramatic fall in consumer confidence is not an aberration -- at least to those who operate outside Canberra. It is mirrored by the mood in small and big businesses, which understand that job shedding is the next likely response to try to curtail costs.

SM,

Wake Up! In case you don't realize it's the end of the financial year!
And stores are desperate to sell their stock. That's why they have
"End of Year Sales." The consumers on the other hand have to fill out their tax returns and figure out how to pay the tax that will be owing. You know things like the GST (introduced by the Libs) that everyone has to pay, annual increases adjusted with the cost of living icnreases, all add to the annual expense. The credit card debt has been reported to be in the billions. Maybe people are waking up and realising they can't keep spending the way they did in the past.
After all the taxes have been paid - and the consumers can assess thei savings, spending will resume. That's an annual occurrence.

Scare and fear mongering doesn't do the Liberals any credit. Don't you ever use any logic in your arguments? My ten-year old nephew has a better grasp of the reality.

Lexi,

I'm disappointed! Your argument is that there is no problem and everyone else is making it up?

Insolvencies are down, sales figures are far worse than last year, tourism is suffering. Or is your solution just to pretend it isn't happening? Try providing a link that contradicts me.

The point of this thread, and the articles I linked is that the timing of this tax is the very worst possible. Just as the high dollar is hurting, the carbon tax will punish these sectors even more.

cum hoc ergo propter hoc

@ Bugsy:

Quite so, but somehow I doubt he'll use the same fallacy to attribute the predicted interest rate cut to the government's actions -

http://www.news.com.au/money/interest-rates/westpac-changes-prediction-of-interest-rate-rise-to-cut-in-december-but-others-disagree/story-e6frfmn0-1226095519473

Morganzola,

Interest rates are dropped when the economy tanks. Remember the GFC?

http://www.theage.com.au/national/good-news-for-bad-reason-interest-rates-tipped-to-fall-20110715-1hi3i.html

"THE collapse in consumer sentiment and increasing risk of a European sovereign debt default have prompted Australia's second-biggest bank to forecast the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates by one percentage point by the end of September 2012.
Interest rates were ''too high'' given the weakness in non-mining parts of the economy, according to the chief economist at Westpac, Bill Evans, who predicted the Reserve would deliver moribund consumers a cut of one quarter of a percentage point at its December meeting. Further three-month instalments of 0.25 percentage point cuts would follow, he predicted. ''While the catalyst for the first rate cut is likely to come from offshore, we do not expect it to be a one-off,'' he said. ''Interest rates are too high in Australia given the state of the non-mining sectors of the domestic economy and a downward adjustment is required to avert a damaging round of contraction.''

http://www.smh.com.au/business/westpac-rates-to-fall-1-20110715-1hi9s.html