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Fear and Panic don't lead us to our best moments, and the 'Ditch the Witch' gathering is clear evidence of that. Even Tony Abbott has said that if he had his time over he wouldn't have stood in front of that banner.
Fear campaigns are designed to stop us listening and to stop us thinking critically. When our hearts rule our heads we do things which are not in our best interests. Based on those parameters the Anti-Carbon Tax campaign has been highly successful... up until now.
Fear campaigns are rarely successful (for very long) on their own. Confusion is also an important part of a propaganda campaign. Those against putting a price on Carbon claim Australia is a small emitter (conveniently ignoring that we are among the highest on a per capita basis), and that others should go before us. They argue against the science, and often quite bizarrely those such as Alan Jones (again) make illogical mathematical claims about our contribution to emissions. And they conflate issues... in this instance making erroneous claims about power price rises being due to the Carbon tax, claims that began before the tax was even implemented.
In time, Fear and Confusion finally bump into.... Reality.
The reality is that few (if any) of us have noticed an impact that we can correlate directly with a price on Carbon. The reality is that only the biggest polluters were targeted by the tax (not everything). The reality is that the Olympic dam decision was not influenced by the Carbon price or the MRRT. The reality is that the Newman Govt's decision to increase mining royalties cost jobs, and attracted no criticism from Mr Abbott. The reality is that consumers were compensated at a level greater than costs were modeled to increase. The reality is that the modeling was accurate. The reality is that one particular pensioner paid twice as much for her electricity because she used twice as much electricity. The reality is that there has been a significant reduction in the Carbon intensity of our electricity generation which aligns directly with the introduction of the Tax (see diagram). The reality is that of the funds raised by the Tax, $10B will be reinvested in Clean energy technology annually by an Independent Expert Panel.
The Reality is that the price on Carbon is doing exactly what was promised... it is driving a reduction in the Carbon intensity of our economy without slugging tax payers or harming business.
There is a reason that Tony Abbott has become progressively quieter on the Carbon Tax. David Marr spelled it out on Insiders on Sunday morning. It is also interesting to read Laura Tingle's analysis in the AFR today.
This all begs the question, what is the actual 'Lie' in the Carbon Tax saga? (it is not possible to call it a debate) Is it a single statement in a long and complex Election campaign over two years ago? Or is it a long, repetitious and concerted process designed to deceive people and to press their emotional buttons in an effort to conceal the truth?
Any thoughts Tony Abbott?