There go those gravy trains in Queensland & Victoria ( Carbon Tax Rejected)

JoNova ^ | March 28th, 2012 | Joanne

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Australia is stepping back from the cliff

We shouldn’t underestimate shift that has just taken place. The psychology of Australian politics moved as the large swinging center was revealed. Not only was the Queensland election worse for Labor than anyone predicted, the message was clear, voters rejected the lies, and rejected the carbon tax. The smear campaign by the Labor leader (Bligh) did more harm to her than it did to her target. Finally, the Hype-&-Spin Machine ran off the rails.

This is real progress. Today both Queensland and Victoria are peeling back the warmist bureaucracy. I’m happy.

The new premier of Queensland Campbell Newman, is scrapping many state carbon reduction schemes. Who knew that the head of Queensland’s Office of Climate Change was none other than Mr Withers, husband of former Premier Anna Bligh? Who said the Labor Party nowadays is just about government money for supporters and mates?

Campbell Newman has said he won’t sack Withers. Instead he wants him to unwind all the programs he put in place. Newman is keeping the solar subsidies for household rooftops, but everything else is being dumped.

The showpiece of the Gillard government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program is now in jeopardy, after Mr Newman yesterday pulled the plug on $75 million in state funding pledged for the $1.2bn Solar Dawn solar thermal project near Chinchilla, west of Brisbane. Mr Newman yesterday declared his LNP government would axe seven other green schemes, on the grounds the carbon tax would make them redundant.

Mr Newman announced the closure of the $430m Queensland Climate Change Fund, which provides $30m a year for climate change initiatives, and the $50m Renewable Energy Fund, which supports the Geothermal Centre of Excellence.

The $50m Smart Energy Savings Program, which helps businesses improve energy efficiency, will be axed, along with the Waste Avoidance and Resource Efficiency Fund, the Local Government Sustainable Future Fund and Solar Initiatives Package. The Future Growth Fund – set up in 2006 with the net proceeds from the sale of state-owned energy corporations – will be axed. It had put $405m towards transport and water infrastructure, clean-coal technology and climate change projects last financial year. The LNP will retain the solar feed-in tariff, which subsidises households that generate solar power.

At the same time, the Victorian premier has stated that he’s slashing the state’s commitment to reduce carbon by 20% by 2020.

The Victorian Government is under attack for scrapping the previous Labor government’s carbon emission reduction target of 20 per cent and replacing it with one that looks to reduce greenhouse gases by just 5 per cent.

The Baillieu government says sticking to the 5 per cent target set by the Federal Government will save Victorians $2 billion. But the renewable energy sector says it will cost jobs at a time when Victoria can least afford to lose them.

When will we teach the broken window fallacy at school? Decades after Hayek make it clear, most commentators still don’t get it. Sure the renewable energy sector will lose jobs when it’s not propped up by the forced payments from the Victorian Government, but if there is $2 billion dollars out there to redistribute, there is exactly the same funds available for more useful jobs — jobs the people of Victoria would rather got done.

Don’t you love it, when a politician promises something useful and does it in his first week in office? Go Campbell!

Andrew Bolt has an impressive list of programs the next Federal Government could axe. Not to mention half the ABC.

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Can we see it happen in the USA?

[GeronL]

Who knew that the head of Queensland’s Office of Climate Change was none other than Mr Withers, husband of former Premier Anna Bligh?

This was a secret?? Is that allowed in Australia?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Beats me....lets ask Fred.

[Fred Nerks]

thanks for the ping, happy news, would have expected nothing less from that dynamo Newman, but this was news to me:

Greg Withers, with his wife Anna Bligh after her election defeat. Photo: Harrison Saragossi

The husband of former premier Anna Bligh was this morning cleaning out his desk, according to sources within the Department of Environment and Resource Management.

Greg Withers has been in charge of DERM's Office of Climate Change since its inception four years ago.

Mr Withers is at work this morning, but is understood to have begun clearing out his desk yesterday afternoon.

SOUCE

And the fact that I didn't know speaks highly of Newman, who faced a barrage of personal and family attacks during the campaign.

[Lancey Howard]

(( ping ))

[liberalh8ter]

Good for Queensland. Now, if only I can convince hubby to retire there. My dream seems to be becoming obtainable!

[Fred Nerks]

Campbell Newman orders Anna Bligh's husband Greg Withers to kill green schemes

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has ordered Anna Bligh's husband to begin dismantling green energy programs he helped create, as the new LNP government moved to slash environmental spending to offset the federal carbon tax.

SOURCE

[PGalt]

It’s 9:30 pm in Michigan, U.S.A. There-must-be-GRRRRREAT-news-somewhere-in-the-world BUMP!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Loving it!

[SouthTexas]

After we knock down a few dozen( or a hundred or so) windmills maybe.

[citizen]

Excellent!

[Marine_Uncle]

RE: "Can we see it happen in the USA?"
The easy answer. Time will tell. Sort of gets one off the hook. Perhaps if we had a upcoming eight year rein of a Republican POTUS who was fully brought on board with what AGW really represents in so many of it's false claims, and backed up by eight years or more of a Republican controlled Senate and House. Equally all being re-educated. I just finished watching a two and a half hour Senate Energy Committee meeting. Some rather interesting notes I took notice of. Perhaps if you can afford the time you may find some interesting things that where brought out. To much for me to have to go into a long dialog, almost thesis on at this site. Senate Meeting.
Things where discussed such as claims that if the USA suddenly started to be able to produce some 1 million gallons per year of crude oil from the Dekotas as well as complete the full Keystone pipe line route. Would it actually decrease the world prices on oil. I'll leave it go at that, other then saying, the answers provided by the panel where quite mixed.

[naturalman1975]

This was a secret?? Is that allowed in Australia?

No, it was not a secret. It just was not particularly well publicised - and quite deliberately on the part of the conservatives.

Greg Withers is a highly competent member of the Queensland public service - a long term member of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. When his wife became Premier he voluntarily took an unpaid leave of absence from his job to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. He did not have to do this legally, but it was a wise decision in the circumstances.

He was hired to take on his new role, quite simply because he was the most qualified person available. Whatever we may think of the idea of climate change, the fact is a new agency was created and it needed somebody to run it. Anna Bligh did not have any influence over his selection - believe me, we scrutinised it in detail to see if she did. He was appointed on merit.

The conservatives in politics did not make a major issue of this in the election because there was no reason to do so. He was simply doing a job he was qualified to do, and selected to do fairly, for a government. We did not believe he should have to completely derail his career because of his wife's position - once he had moved out of a position where she could have (not that she necessarily would have) had an undue influence on him, that was the end of the matter.

It wasn't a secret - it was mentioned in the media quite openly on occasion. But it was not an election issue.

Mr Withers has also been asked to stay on his role to dismantle the department and after he has done so, assuming he does as good a job as we would expect from a senior public servant with his record, he can expect to be appointed to some other senior position. He's an asset - and we don't punish public servants for carrying out the wishes of the elected government - that's their job.