High noon showdown for pollies
AFTER a tit-for-tat slanging match on the carbon tax, Cowper MP Luke Hartsuyker and duty senator Matt Thistlethwaite have squared off on radio.
Their high noon showdown on the Federal Government's Clean Energy Future was played out today in the 2HC studio adjudicated by local radio presenter Stephen Cenatiempo.
"We took advice on this from the experts, the best way to put a price on carbon is through a market based mechanism where the top 500 polluters will pay for the right to pump carbon dioxide into our atmosphere," Mr Thistlethwaite said.
"There is broad consensus climate change is happening and we need to act.
"It is up to households to make their own decision how they reduce their carbon emissions."
Senator Thistlethwaite said half of the tax revenue collected would be paid out as compensation to taxpayers to smooth the path to change.
He said in Cowper's case 41,000 tax payers would receive a tax cut.
Mr Hartsuyker argued the tax in its current form would cost 126,000 jobs across the country after the big polluters passed on the cost of the tax to small business and working families.
He said the current emissions trading scheme could also see the cost of electricity skyrocket.
"This is a tax introduced on the basis of a lie," Mr Hartsuyker said.
"The public will bear the pain of this tax . . . no other country anywhere in the world is doing this, there is no compensation for the lost of jobs."
"This tax relies on buying piece of paper from overseas traders to reduce carbon emissions, which is just farcical," he said.
