Are market solutions the best mechanism?

Martin Gordon writes: Re. “Where does a carbon price fit in an average household budget?” (yesterday, item 1) I enjoyed your article on household impacts, and find your point about industry focused support compelling. I accept climate change as scientifically sound (however imprecisely projected), but as an economist increasingly sceptical of the huge churn inherent in emissions trading and carbon tax.

I am amazed at the Greens reversal against emissions trading to now favour it (given they are against market solutions generally), and the dishonesty of Gillard on her Carbon Tax policy breach. ACIL Tasman has modelled the costs of emissions compliant new power generating plants at $30.5 billion over the next decade, which is on top of the $120 billion or so of carbon tax which is recycled into our pockets! Why not cut some tens of billions of dollars of churn out and get some ‘real change’? And can the emotional class warfare rhetoric be turned off? It’s not the polluters that pay tax, but their customers, i.e. us.

Andrew Bolt

Marlabungu writes: Re. “Simons: why we have to hope that Bolt wins his case” (Monday, item 5). Blacks, half-breed, light skinned and Aboriginality — it sounds like the White Australia policy is alive and well.  It is plain to see that the Andrew Bolt case is about the continued dictation from White Australia and the new and improved assimilation policy.

The new and improved assimilation policy now allows you to openly criticise and dictate your opinions to people based on their colour and simply call it freedom of speech.  It is important to protect freedom of speech, because it is a ‘white right’ and this right allows you to openly criticise people because they are not like you.  The new policy now uses words such as descent, Aboriginality and light-skinned to strategically define who is and who isn’t Aboriginal.

It is a policy that is designed to ensure there are more ‘white’ people than there are Indigenous — thereby increasing the majority. It is largely based on the fear of becoming a minority group and the fear of losing control. Why stop at white skinned people when brown skin blacks are just as much an abomination in pigment? And don’t black skin people drive cars, watch television and consume as much as any other person in Australia? How dare they call themselves Aboriginal.

Do we really need another ‘Protector of Aborigines’ where scared ‘white’ men dictate how we will live and who we will marry. According to Bolt if I want to call myself an Aboriginal I can only marry a black Aboriginal woman so my children can have black skin. Isn’t this issue really about money and the fact that Australia is realising that Colonisation/Invasion is having an immense financial impact on our economy?

Or is it that because we now have lighter skin that you only have to Close the Gap with those real and true black Aborigines. So isn’t it more about limiting the number of Aboriginal people we have in Australia? Therefore you get away with destroying a society and remove yourself from the actions of your forefathers

Aboriginal people have done nothing wrong to you — and you know it.

Not such a Dick

Bryan Buchanan writes: Arley Moulton (comments, Monday) berates Bill Williams and suggests Crikey doesn’t report Dick Smith’s “dribble because it’s such a disgusting, ridiculous and unworkable proposal”, and then comes out with a load of nonsensical dribble him/herself.

Moulton asks: “On what planet is that practical”? I guess that’d be the same planet that China’s on.

And as for Dick Smith telling young women what they can and can’t do with their bodies, he did nothing of the kind. He simply pointed out the inescapable fact that increasing human population is the single greatest contributor to pretty much all the world’s problems (climate change, food shortage, energy depletion etc).

Indeed, I think you’d be considered a pr-ck in many people’s eyes if you put your own selfish interests to breed uncontrollably ahead of the greater community good of having a planet that wasn’t completely screwed.