I am pretty sure I have stated my position clearly on the Australian carbon tax before. The deal has changed slightly since I wrote that article, but it does not change the fact that this tax is evil and goes against the interests of Australians.
They are now saying they are only charging the "biggest polluters" and compensate to consumers when those companies pass down the tax. Firstly, who is it to decide who are the "biggest polluters"? It is a socialist (Robin Hood) approach of the government to say that "we are ripping you off because you are rich". Secondly, the government claims that the tax will not hurt the consumers because it is compensating the tax collected back to them. If consumers get less compensation than they paid for the cost of the tax, they are without doubt hurt; and if they get equal or more compensation than what they paid what is the purpose of this tax when the companies raised their price and covered for the tax and the government compensate what it collected from those companies back to consumers (who paid the company), plus its handling/accounting charges etc and become worse off. Mind you, in either case those companies which the carbon tax was supposed to target are not the loser, they raised their price for the tax and got themselves covered no matter what. It is either consumers or the government itself that is hurt by the tax.
In other words, this tax is useless in terms of reducing carbon dioxide emission.
