A Sign Of The Times Down Under

It's only four years since the Australian government passed its Expanded Renewable Energy Target policy to ensure that renewable energy obtains a 20% share of electricity by 2020. Other renewable energy programmes preceded this one and Australia and it was highly praised, by the highly vocal eco-loons, for passing legislation to tax carbon.

Australia announced it was going to lead the stop-the-world-warming battle. Its politicians found the easy way to gain massive income for their adoption of the new religion by placing a tax on the energy people use and low and behold it worked.  As it has done here.  I've yet to hear of anyone deducting the 'green' tax from a utility bill and although I thought about it last year, the premium I would have been forced to pay if I wanted to pay by cheque or card, instead of direct debit, was too much.  Perhaps that's why so many of us haven't protested by withholding these taxes.

However, after last week's leadership farce in Australia, PM Gillard has reshuffled again and the Department of Climate Change is disappearing into a 'super ministry'. This is the classic way politicians kick issues too contentious to drop altogether, into the long grass.

The greens aren't happy because they consider the Gillard government has moved closer to abolishing a stand-alone climate department.

The usual bureaucratic process is to merge two departments into one and change the name of the new department into something non-specific.  This is what has happened in Australia.

Is there any chance it may happen here soon?  Please?

Note:  Earlier this morning another inch or two of global warming adorned the view from my window. Of course the world is warming.

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