Barnaby’s E-Newsletter – June 2011

21 Jun

Download it here (right click and “save as” … pdf).

A couple of highlights:

At a time when Australian families are facing severe cost of living pressures, Labor’s Budget has cut support for families and hit them with new and higher taxes.

The Budget strips $2 billion from families by freezing for three years the indexation of key family tax payments and income thresholds.

Headline budget results

• The budget deficit this financial year is $7.9 billion worse ($49.4 billion)

• The budget deficit next financial year is $10.3 billion worse ($22.6 billion)

• The result is net debt will grow to over $100 billion next year and stay over $100 billion for the rest of the forward estimates.

• This will be record levels of debt. Over $10 billion more than the debt Keating left the Howard Government in 1996.

It’s YOUR debt

In the three and a half years, the Commonwealth Government has increased debt by $150 billion. This is not the Government’s debt. It is your debt. One day current and future Australians will have the burden of
paying this borrowed money back.

There are 12.3 million taxpayers in Australia. Every taxpayer owes an extra $12,314 now that Labor has put $150 billion on the nation’s credit card.

The cost of living just keeps going up

When governments borrow they compete for money with private individuals and companies who want to borrow for a new home or to invest in a business. This pushes up interest rates, the price of money.

Over the last 30 years, interest rates have averaged 11.6% under Labor governments and 8% under Coalition governments. This difference would add an extra $770 to the monthly mortgage payments on the average
Australian home loan.

Already since Labor came to power, electricity prices have gone up 51 per cent, water prices 46 per cent and gas prices 30 per cent.

And living costs are set to go up even further. A carbon tax will add another $300 to average annual electricity costs, petrol prices will go up by another 6.5 cents a litre and the cost of building a new home will go up by over $6,000.

All of these costs will be on top of the need for the average taxpayer to pay their $12,314 share of Labor’s debt. How many more years of this Green‐Labor‐Independent government can you afford?

WHAT IS A CARBON TAX … AND WHO WILL PAY IT?

Carbon is present in all forms of life and most fuels. When fuels are consumed to produce energy, the carbon is emitted as carbon dioxide. A carbon tax is a tax that is levied on carbon dioxide emissions.

So any practice that creates emissions—whether it’s turning on a light, driving a car or manufacturing food and other goods—will incur a carbon tax.

Under the government’s plan, the carbon tax will be imposed directly on companies and indirectly on everybody else as those companies increase their prices to recover the tax. For families and small businesses, that will mean either spending more—or consuming less.

What prices will rise?

Prices for most goods and services will go up. A key target of the carbon tax will be electricity generators. Because electricity is used in making and delivering virtually all goods and services, the cost of the carbon tax to the electricity companies will be passed on to the consumers and small business.

When the carbon tax is applied to petrol, those prices will go up for the same reason.

At the family level, the biggest direct impact will be more expensive power, petrol and grocery bills, but many more consumer items will increase in price as well because of increased manufacturing and transport costs.

How much will it cost?

That depends on the level of the tax and how widely it is applied. It will likely start at between $20 and $40 per tonne of carbon emissions and rise from there.

If it’s applied to petrol, prices will increase by 2.5 cents per litre for every $10 of carbon tax. So a carbon tax starting at $25 per tonne will result in an initial increase in petrol prices by 6.5 cents per litre.

At that carbon price, electricity bills would rise by about $300 a year for most families. For instance, a $40 per tonne carbon tax would increase petrol prices by about 10 cents per litre.

Regardless, the Gillard government’s chief climate adviser Professor Ross Garnaut has admitted that “Australian households will ultimately bear the full cost of a carbon price.”

The carbon tax will have a cascading effect on the economy because it will hit every stage of the supply chain, ever‐increasing the cost to you along the way.

Here’s Barnaby speaking against the carbon dioxide tax at the Port Macquarie No Carbon Tax rally:

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