The heat is on: Labor must stop handing taxpayer dollars to the fossil fuel industry

Fiona Conolly writes: Fossil fuel subsidies are a drain on the economy (“Labor’s billions to fossil fuel companies heralds a new era of political betrayal”). Coal, gas and oil are fast becoming stranded assets and coal and gas companies should be limited to buying renewable energy certificates if they want to claim carbon credits. That would boost innovation and the roll-out of renewables and hasten the demise of coal, oil and gas. It would also set us on the road to a lucrative renewable energy industry that delivers cheap, clean energy and jobs, benefiting our communities, our planet and emerging manufacturing industries.

Ivan Davis writes: Fossil fuel subsidies do not make an iota of sense unless the first order of business is corruption. Then and only then do they make perfect sense.

John Peel writes: Enough to make you puke. Maeve McGregor at her best.

Jane Rayner writes: This is another reason I have lost faith in Labor. Instead of handing the polluting industries billions in subsidies, it should be fixing Medicare, addressing the housing, education and hospital crises and raising JobSeeker. Where is Gough’s Labor?

John Blyth writes: It’s hard to put it more eloquently than this article. What will it take to change the dominant paradigm?

Jean John writes: Every time a government does something it knows will be unpopular it sells it on the basis of creating jobs, e.g. purchasing nuclear submarines, fracking the Beetaloo Basin, funding more fossil-fuel projects.

We don’t need more jobs. We have low unemployment and a shortage of construction workers and tradies. What we need is more affordable housing and rentals for low-paid workers such as care and health workers, the unemployed etc, and a decent rise in JobSeeker.

Brian Ede writes: I remember discussing the diesel fuel rebate with Peter Walsh when he was finance minister. He was of the very strong view that you do not tax exports. As I understand it, most of the amounts you refer to are the return of excise duties paid on diesel fuel. Most of our mined minerals are exported. If the excise duty was not returned it would represent an added cost to the exported product. A similar situation exists for most of our farming products. I am not sure what adjustments, if any, are made for industries that produce into the domestic market.

Neither saint nor sinner

Eva Cox writes: I am surprised Leslie Cannold wrote “Women leaders are no more morally pure than men” as I am concerned it will be used by nasty anti-feminists to campaign against equality for women. As a long-term active feminist who has copped it from other feminists and men, I am aware that women are human and neither automatically saintly nor evil.

So few of us claim women are inherently more moral than men. We need real equality so the range of skills and experiences we are more likely to own are needed in positions of power, needed to balance those that men primarily offer. The actions of the two older women Cannold used as evidence is a very poor basis of this “discovery”.

The mess that is neoliberalism is a destructive paradigm that has a macho rejection of unpaid contribution as well-being, preferring the monetised. That has produced crappy male drive problems that feminists need to address as it ignores our unpaid care needs. We can’t claim all men are selfish… Gender is complex… and not holy! 

Megan Stoyles writes: Are women there to be “God’s police” or do they have the same flaws as men but still deserve half the chocolate bikkies, as Leslie Cannold asks. Your story “Rank hypocrisy: Seymour takes the fall as PwC enters reputation rehab mode” suggests a twist on the former.

After the “fall” of CEO Tom Seymour he’s replaced by a woman, Kristin Stubbins, as an “acting” CEO. Presumably she’ll  mop up the blood up then get out the Dyson to vacuum up the carpets, or sweep under them to protect the others. A glorified housekeeper unless she finds some more really dirty business — linen or otherwise — that will help her to keep the top job (if she wants it).

Zero sum game

Roger Clifton writes: A national net zero authority is a brave and necessary institution to convert Australia to non-fossil energy (“Australia has a net-zero authority at long last. Here’s what it’ll do”).  For it to prepare workers for a fossil-free future, it would have to train them to reduce iron ore production with electricity, make fondu cement in electric furnaces, synthesise fuel, petrochemicals and plastics from recycled CO2 and, yes, how to operate nuclear power stations.  We must include nuclear in the mix if we are ever to free ourselves from gas.

Cut to the core

Kristian Eldridge writes: The government should not scrap the stage three tax cuts (“The cruel and unfair stage three tax cuts will only worsen inequality”). I’m Australian, but I come from a migrant background with parents who also suffered from significant financial disadvantage for much of their lives. So I worked hard and made sacrifices to earn the income I earn today and probably won’t continue to earn forever. So scrapping the stage three tax cuts would be hugely unfair and cruel to me and many people like me, and will lead to more inequality.