The Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, Mr Viv Forbes, today claimed that the plan by Australian PM Rudd to cull one million camels may have unexpected carbon tax consequences.

Forbes explains:
“PM Rudd proposes to spend $19 million shooting one million wild camels.

“A big camel probably weighs about a tonne, so Mr Rudd is going to let a million tonnes of valuable meat rot under the Centralian sun.

“Each camel probably has about 190 kg of carbon sequestered in its body. As it rots and absorbs oxygen, this carbon will increase into about 700 kg of carbon dioxide which will then dissipate into the atmosphere.

“If the Australian Senate is silly enough to pass the Wong carbon dioxide Ration-n-Tax Scheme this shootout will thus trigger a huge carbon tax liability.

“At a carbon emission price of say $40 per tonne of carbon dioxide, the carbon tax on one million rotting camels would be about $28 million.

“If we add to that the actual cull costs of about $19 million and the carbon tax due on helicopter emissions and other activities, the total cost of the cull is about $50 million.

“This illustrates the dangers of costly unexpected consequences resulting from complex poorly designed bills being rushed through both Australian and US Legislatures by Mr Rudd and his buddy Mr Obama. Luckily Senators in both countries will probably reject this nonsense.

“If not, this $50 million invoice for the full costs of the camel shootout should not be presented to the taxpayers, but sent to Cull Commander Minister Garrett.

“This may convince him to chase up a few old Territorian buffalo shooters who could make a tidy profit at no cost to the taxpayer by culling the camels and selling the meat to Taiwan. Or we could sell permits to a few big game hunters. Or sell live camels to the Arabs.”

A Reader’s Comment:

Culling is a stupid blind man’s solution to the camel problem…!!

By Paddy McHugh

My name is Paddy McHugh and I have been working with camels in Australia and overseas for some 35 years. I am deeply disturbed by what is about to happen and feel that people and the media have only been told only one side of the story and a very slanted and incorrect one at that. Spending 19 million dollars on the wholesale slaughter of camels is not the answer. I would like to bring to your attention another side of the Australian camel problem and the industry’s potential.

The current proposal leads down the path of mass slaughter, disease potential from rotting carcasses, dingo explosion and missed opportunities. There is another road which looks to the future – a golden opportunity for another viable rural industry for this country with employment in a new bio-diverse industry that will employ hundreds of Aboriginal people and bring large amounts of export dollars into this country.

The traditional land owners are yet again about to be ripped off and left in the dark. The people in APY lands and CLC deserts are being told complete untruths and are having the wool pulled over their eyes in one of the greatest and most immoral scams this country has ever witnessed.

As a very good friend of mine has stated “The Camel is the animal of the 22nd century” This statement came from Dr Alex Tinson who is quite possibly the world’s leading camel vet and works for the President of the UAE.

My office receives dozens of emails seeking camel products from milk, meat, blood and all the by-products that come from this animal – the international potential for this industry is immense.

It is an animal easily farmed like cattle and sheep and has a far less detrimental impact on the environment. In fact camels enhance the land by helping eradicate woody weeds and have a forage overlap of no more the 20% with cattle and sheep. 70% of Australia’s land mass is classed arid, why are we not farming camels?

The commercial side of this potential industry has been suppressed in discussions regarding the feral problem.

A mandate to shoot the camel at any cost is absurd. People who advocate this are completely one track and have absolutely no vision or hands on experience in the husbandry and handling of this animal.

Out of the 19 million dollars that has been allocated for this slaughter none of it has been put into education and training or industry development and that is where the bulk of this funding should be put. Who is accountable here?

What happens in years to come when the camel population comes back to the same present numbers, do we spend another 20 million dollars..!! again and again I acknowledge that we do have a camel problem that needs to be fixed, but mass shooting of them is certainly not the answer. It is not even close. All parties need to come together and discuss this animal’s future.

A real camel industry could not only fix the immediate problem but also stabilise the long
term and give many people a great future.

For years I have passionately championed the camel and its potential in Australia. It is now time to take a firm stand against the so called experts who are ill informed on these matters. Many people will have senseless blood on their hands with what is about to happen. I will not let the mindless slaughter of these animals take place.

I look forward to sitting down and discussing this for the good of all Australians.

PaddyMcHugh.com Pty Ltd
www.paddymchugh.com

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