Govt has compassion on rich polluters
‘Nats soften emissions blow for businesses’ (03/07/2012, Fairfax)
Mr Key confirmed taxpayers would have to pick up the $80 million tab as a result of the reprieve for business and farmers announced yesterday, but insisted the measures would minimise the impact of the ETS on “households, exporters and employers”.
He said the transition measures initially introduced by National had halved the impact of the ETS on households and exporters compared with what Labour originally planned.
The Cabinet had now agreed that those transition measures needed to run for longer “given the fragile international economic environment and the minimal progress made by other countries to develop similar climate change tools”.
In its infinite wisdom, the government has decided that the economic environment is far too fragile to be worrying about the real environment.
Recognising its integral role in economic growth, the government will continue to subsidise pollution until further notice.
Obviously the other taxpayers (workers, consumers, smokers, children) and tax recipients are in a far better position to be able to pay for rich polluters’ pollution than the rich polluters themselves.
And I thought this government didn’t believe in compassion during a recession.
I love his use of the word “households”. Thank God we have John Key to protect decent households from poor people and consequences and stuff.