Australian Politics thread [merged]

[1965]

Well stuff me, it turns out climate change is real.

Who would have thought?


Climate results convert sceptic: 'let the evidence change our minds'

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-results-convert-sceptic-let-the-evidence-change-our-minds-20120730-23769.html#ixzz224B7mFNJ


THE Earth's land has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the past 250 years and ''humans are almost entirely the cause'', according to a scientific study set up to address climate sceptic concerns about whether human-induced global warming is occurring.

Richard Muller, a climate sceptic physicist who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, said he was ''surprised'' by the findings. ''We were not expecting this, but as scientists, it is our duty to let the evidence change our minds.''

He said he considered himself a ''converted sceptic'' and his views had received a ''total turnaround'' in a short space of time.

''Our results show that the average temperature of the Earth's land has risen by 2½ degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of 1½ degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases,'' Professor Muller wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times.

[dwaino]

The dinosaurs caused a warmer Earth durin their time because they had poor diets and farted too much. One day, the biggest and baddest T-Rex taxed them all and the herbivores could no longer afford cosmetic surgery to extend their necks to reach the leaves on the taller trees and the food chain fell apart.  But some wily plesiosaurs blamed this and the KT boundary asteroid on the bad T-Rexs

[Dubstep Dookie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[1965]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Not your best effort.

Lift your game youngster.

[Dubstep Dookie]

Who is this?

[dwaino]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Carlin 

http://youtu.be/ywewO3H08FQ Hicks 

[10 FLAGS]

Australian workers getting the arse all over the place because of Labors pro tax policies. Its an absolute disgrace.

[1965]

Australian workers getting the behind all over the place because of Labors pro tax policies. Its an absolute disgrace.

The high Aus dollar is killing our manufacturing industry not any tax that the govt has introduced.

I am starting to think that some people deserve a dose of Abbott to bring them back to their senses.

By almost every measure the Aust economy is out performing the rest of the world.

But people still get sucked in by the crap that comes out of Abbott and his cronies.

 

[mightytiges]

A report on the effects of the Carbon Tax after its first month. The sky hasn't fallen in.

Carbon tax price rises limited to utilities: index
By finance reporter Elysse Morgan
ABC
August 06, 2012

A private index shows the carbon tax had little effect on inflation in its first month of operation, despite pushing up energy costs.

The monthly inflation gauge by TD Securities and the Melbourne Institute shows consumer prices rose by only 0.2 per cent in July, with the annual rate hitting a three-year low of 1.5 per cent.

The carbon tax, combined with regular new financial year price hikes, led to a significant jump in utility prices - electricity costs rose almost 15 per cent, gas and other household fuel prices increased a touch over 10 per cent.

TD Securities says the scale of the utility price increases was in line with Treasury's forecasts.

These rises were offset by falling petrol and diesel costs, and price falls for insurance and financial services, and holiday travel and accommodation.

TD Securities head of Asia-Pacific research Annette Beacher says, outside of utilities, there was no evidence of the carbon tax pushing up prices.

"We looked closely at food, airfares, some electrical appliances, we looked at the other sectors that were meant to have an impact of the carbon tax and we don't see anything," she observed.

"So while the first round effects have certainly been on energy prices in July we have to keep looking at this gauge on a month to month basis to see if it actually starts creeping through into other sectors."

Annette Beacher says she was surprised by the lack of a wider carbon tax impact on prices.

"There is absolutely a first round impact of the carbon tax on utilities, but certainly we've found next to no evidence of the carbon tax on any of the other expenditure classes," she said.

However, she also notes that may change as businesses start receiving higher utility bills and pass on some of their higher energy costs.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-06/carbon-tax-affecting-utility-prices/4179448

[1965]

More proof of what a lying bastard Abbott is.



Carbon tax inflation fears yet to materialise
 
Date August 7, 2012
 
Peter Martin
 
TONY Abbott said its impact on the cost of living would be ''almost unimaginable''. Joe Hockey said it would ''drive up the price of everything''. Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said it would force working mothers to pay ''over $100 for a roast''.
 
Yet the first figures in on the price impact of the carbon tax show its effect contained and inflation low.

The privately compiled TD Securities Melbourne Institute price index barely moved as the carbon tax came in in July. The total increase for the month was 0.2 per cent, taking the annual rate of inflation to just 1.5 per cent, the lowest in three years.
 
TD Securities' findings aren't because energy prices didn't rise. It reports a jump in electricity prices of 14.9 per cent and a jump in household gas prices of 10.3 per cent, almost all of which would have been due to the carbon tax. But the little-appreciated reality of consumer spending is that by themselves electricity and gas aren't very important in household budgets. Combined, they make up 2.7 per cent of consumer spending. In contrast meals out and takeaway food account for 5.5 per cent and alcohol 4.8 per cent.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/carbon-tax-inflation-fears-yet-to-materialise-20120806-23qdp.html#ixzz22nQTy5Mw

[dwaino]

Atlantis sunk because they didn't impose a tax when the Bosporus strait busted  Idiots back then were banging on with crap about how Orrorin scientists managed just fine in the late Miocene 

[gerkin greg]

There's a bit of Terry Wallace about this bloke 

[Coach]

stuff yeah I can't wait for this bloke to lead our country.

[1965]

More proof of what a lying bastard Tont Abbott is...


Carbon tax in soft landing
 
Date August 10, 2012

THE federal opposition's scare campaign against the carbon tax has failed its first test. The Bureau of Statistics reports that seasonally adjusted employment rose by 14,000 in July - the month the tax took effect - while unemployment fell to 5.2 per cent.
 
For the government, it was a double bonus after the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge reported on Monday that inflation rose just 0.2 per cent in July, and was flat over the past three months.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/carbon-tax-in-soft-landing-20120809-23x6t.html#ixzz234v24xt5

[1965]

From the Age editorial

Gillard at least deserves a tick for economy
August 10, 2012
It's a dubious sort of debate that divorces itself from basic fact.


WHAT must a government, even one losing the battle for hearts and minds, do to scrape a pass mark for economic management? On any objective assessment, Australia's economy is a gold medal performer. Yet Opposition Leader Tony Abbott routinely condemns ''the worst government in Australia's history''. Coalition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, faced with strong growth data, retorted: ''Imagine how well our country could do if we had a good government.''

Some suggest the government got lucky, that it inherited a strong economy and that current figures are suspect. Mr Stevens is showing signs of impatience with the ''glass half-empty'' view. His speech last month, ''The Lucky Country'', rejects the notion that pure luck can explain a ''remarkably good'' performance in the years since government stimulus kept the global recession at bay. Mr Stevens went through data showing the economy's performance has been ''more than acceptable over recent years'', adding: ''This conclusion would stand whether comparisons were made against most other countries or against our own historical experience.''

Australians can check for themselves. The Reserve Bank's online Chart Pack consistently tells the same remarkable story. Inflation, interest rates and unemployment are all at or near two-decade lows, while participation remains high. Even the much-lamented productivity rate has ticked up; output per hour worked is the highest in a decade. Other developed nations have half our growth - Mr Stevens highlighted the disparity in real GDP growth since 2007 - and twice the jobless rate...

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence reveals a disconnect between such facts and public opinion. Labor voters score 124 and Coalition voters a gloomy 79. The disparity belies their access to the same economic facts. So vital is consumer confidence that all responsible political leaders must be wary of ''talking down'' the economy. Whatever the sins of Julia Gillard and her government, gross economic mismanagement is not one of them.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/gillard-at-least-deserves-a-tick-for-economy-20120809-23wyk.html#ixzz236kbxxWp