From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Debate on the government’s carbon tax has got off to a spluttering start in the Senate.
A package of 19 bills is being considered by the upper house for the first time, following its approval by the House of Representatives this month.
As debate was due to start today, Opposition senate leader Eric Abetz moved to suspend standing orders to allow debate of a motion aimed at delaying consideration of the bills until after the next election.
The Australian people were entitled to a say because the government had been “grossly misleading” by stating there would be no carbon tax before the 2010 election, he said.
Labor and the Australian Greens used their numbers to defeat the motion 35-31.
It is crystal clear then.
Labor and the Greens do not believe in heeding the will of the voters.
Understandable really.
Because both parties are party to “the greatest scam on earth”:
Nationals senate leader Barnaby Joyce predicted the carbon price would be worth nothing within 10 years.
“Because they won’t be there,” he told Parliament.
“You can bank on that with absolute certainty under a Coalition government.”
Senator Joyce also described the trading of carbon permits as “the greatest scam on earth”.
Indeed.
As we have seen in previous posts, carbon “permits” do not even exist.
They are nothing more than numbers. Electronic digits, in the government’s Australian National Registry Of Emissions Units computer:
Division 2—Issue of carbon units
94 Issue of carbon units
The Regulator may, on behalf of the Commonwealth, issue units, to be known as carbon units.
95 Identification number
A carbon unit is to be identified by a unique number, to be known as the identification number of the unit.
98 How carbon units are to be issued
(1) The Regulator is to issue a carbon unit to a person by making an entry for the unit in a Registry account kept by the person.
(2) An entry for a carbon unit in a Registry account is to consist of the identification number of the unit.
(3) The Regulator must not issue a carbon unit to a person unless the person has a Registry account.
There you have it, dear reader. From the government’s own Bill, now before the Senate.
There is no such thing as a physical carbon “permit”. No printed bits of paper.
Just electronic digits.
I wonder, will the Regulator and/or their staff manually type up the 15 million Identification numbers that constitute each of the carbon “units” to be issued each financial year?:
101 Limit on issue of carbon units
(1) The Regulator must ensure that not more than 15 million carbon units with a particular vintage year are issued as a result of auctions that were conducted by the Regulator during a financial year …
No chance.
It will all be done automatically:
296 Computerised decision‑making
(1) The Regulator may, by instrument in writing, arrange for the use, under the Regulator’s control, of computer programs for any purposes for which the Regulator may, or must, under this Act or the regulations:
(a) make a decision; or
(b) exercise any power or comply with any obligation; or
(c) do anything else related to making a decision or exercising a power or complying with an obligation.
These computer-generated numbers – 15 million of them per year – will have a “value” in dollars.
Because the government says so … in their new laws passed in the Parliament.
The Clean Energy Act 2011 demonstrates that the ALP and the Greens are playing their part in “the greatest scam on earth”.
Barnaby is right.
Barnaby Is Right 
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