Can we vote on this tax at some point?

Australia has not voted on the carbon tax. We have not had our say. Doesn’t matter to labor and the greens, we’re going to get it anyway. And now, when we do get a chance to vote on the carbon tax(2013 or sooner), it may not even mean anything.

IT was Mark Dreyfus QC, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, who let the cat out of the bag.

Once the carbon change legislation is in place, he said, repeal would amount to an acquisition of property by the commonwealth, as holders of emissions permits would be deprived of a valuable asset. As a result, the commonwealth would be liable, under s.51(xxxi) of the Australian Constitution, to pay compensation, potentially in the billions of dollars. A future government would therefore find repeal prohibitively costly.

That consequence is anything but unintended. The clean energy legislation, released this week, specifically provides that “a carbon unit (its generic term for a right to emit) is personal property”.

So, essentially they’re going to shoot an arrow through the nation’s guts, one with a nice, big arrowhead. It may inflict more damage to take it out. Meanwhile the tax grabs a hold like a virus, and completely takes over.

We cannot allow this tax to even get a look in. It seems it may be able to bypass the democratic process altogether, with Gillard set to guarantee her legacy as Australia’s worst ever Prime Minister. The fundamental aspect of a democracy is that decisions that affect us are put to us at an election. Not only has the carbon tax not been put to us, but future generations will not get a chance to vote on it. And Gillard says she’s doing it for them.

It looks like everything may come down to Andrew Wilkie. If he ditches these incompetents before in May, when he doesn’t get his way on his pokies plan, like he’s indicating, then we won’t have to deal with this poisonous tax.