In a moment of uncharacteristic political honesty, John Key has come clean on his ETS:
Households will bear more than their fair share of increased energy costs when the next phase of the emissions trading scheme takes effect on Thursday, Prime Minister John Key has acknowledged.
The Sustainability Council recently suggested households would bear half of the cost of the ETS during its first five years despite accounting for just 19 per cent of all emissions.
Yesterday, at the start of a week in which the transport and electricity sectors come under the ETS, the PM conceded that “a disproportionate amount” would be paid by households under the scheme.
Got that householders? You’re copping a “disproportionate amount” of the cost. As well as inflation, a rise in GST, and whatever associated gouging our captains of finance can piggyback on all of the above. Nice. But – why are households getting clobbered? What’s the excuse? Key explains:
“But that’s because if we are too heavy handed with businesses … on day one, that runs the risk of those very same households potentially losing their jobs. That’s just the balance here.”
No one wants to see jobs lost – but what is the real scope of that problem compared to the disproportionate costs being loaded on to every household? Where is the government leadership, creating new jobs, moving us to a green economy? As usual, it seems, capitalists only believe in capitalism when it suits them. In theory a business which is uneconomic should go under, and new, more efficient businesses spring up to take it’s place. In practice National’s scheme is all about keeping things sweet for their mates – muffling the price signal that an ETS is supposed to send by (as usual) socialising the costs. So, sorry householder, sucks to be you I guess.
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