Well the time is ripe at the moment, for me to really bring my political commentary into it’s own.  But to be honest, between work and interrogating my brother about exactly who it was that dropped off a Craig Thomas (the guy I wish was going to be my next local member) sign in our front yard, and travelling between the two capital cities which have made me a silver frequent flier, I’m actually kind of busy.

Lots of promises are made and no doubt, no matter where they come from (although they all seem to be coming from the same place), very few will be kept.  Mostly because they’re short term and no doubt we’ll find out very soon that they’re not viable.  Or they’re very far in the future, and we’ll not only have forgotten, but I’m sure I won’t be the first one to point out to you that 2020 is still 13 years off and we’ll have 4 more elections and potentially as many changes of government.  (I’m a realist not a blind optimist).

The one thing that’s bugging me at the moment is the hoo-har over the environment.  Actually it’s not over the environment, it’s over Kyoto, which is the annoying part.  First of all I believe it’s a big distraction from real issues that will affect how we function in a very real way.  Government needs to be pragmatic, and there’s not a lot of pragmatism going on at the moment.  Also I object to Kyoto for a number of reasons.  First the targets are arbitrary.  Second it creates an arbitrary market for trading something that doesn’t really exist (carbon credits, rather like options or CFD’s).  Third, this arbitrary market will force up the cost of business, meaning product prices are more expensive and less accessible to consumers.  And Fourth, none of the money made from this market will actually go towards developing cleaner technology or cleaning up the environmental mess we have.  Fifth, carbon credits may not be allocated in an optimal or equitable way, and we’ll have the same problems we have in Southern Qld/Northern NSW with farmers damming rivers having been, collectively, the rights to store more water than the river can actually hold.

In essence, Kyoto has no real value for the environment or the economy.  It sets targets but gives no reason or incentive to meet them.  It’s a dead issue.  What is really the issue is looking for ways to develop cleaner technology and providing individuals and businesses with incentives to pollute less.  Heck, when I look at transport in Brisbane, just offering more frequent transport to more areas would take hundreds of cars off the road in the morning and do more to reduce pollution than any trading scheme would.

Obviously, with my bias, I did appreciate that Howard was starting up a fund to alleviate rising utility costs to those on low incomes.  This will be inevitable if we do introduce a carbon trading scheme and force the cost of business up.  But I’m still miffed that he hasn’t stood by his original position.  And I was always miffed at Rudd for putting the strangest man in parliament in charge of his environmental polices.  But I’m yet to find a party that bridges extremist positions on the environment to come up with something sensible.

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