The Carbon Sense Coalition has delivered its submission to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change in response to the Exposure Draft of the “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009″.

The recommendations are:

1. The Senate must reject the “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill” on the basis of its “Two Fatal Flaws” – the science and the economics. It is not supported by independent scientific assessment, nor does it present any credible cost benefit analysis. Moreover, at a time when politicians are calling for better financial disclosure and discipline, this Bill is alarming in its deceptive advertising, shows contempt for good practice by omitting independent expert reports, and stands condemned for failure to disclose the numerous vested interests supporting its claims.
2. The Bill should also be rejected for promoting the risky and repugnant idea that Australia can or should lead the world into universal acceptance of a massive program of wealth distribution administered by bodies such as the United Nations. This shows a lack of appreciation of the fact that popular opinion all over the world is turning strongly against the global warming hysteria, and many significant industrial nations such as China, India, Brazil and Russia are motivated solely by what they see will promote their own national interest and industrial strength.
3. Finally the Bill should be rejected because of the naivety of people who tell us that a nation which generates 90% of its electricity from coal, and which also prohibits nuclear power, can maintain energy supplies for its people while cutting per capita production of carbon dioxide by 30% over the next decade or so. This cannot be done without either significant cuts in living standards or reduced population.
4. However, the Carbon Sense Coalition supports every initiative to reduce pollution of land, air or water. We also support energy conservation, and oppose any subsidies that encourage waste and overuse of any energy type.

However neither of these worthy goals have anything to do with the effect of carbon dioxide on global warming. Unproven climate scares should not be used to promote secret agendas to introduce massive new consumption taxes on top of the rash of taxes already there such as Goods and Services Tax, Income Tax, Payroll Tax, Coal and Oil Royalties, petrol excise, vehicle and stock levies and so on

The full submission is available here. [PDF, 818KB]