OPINION
The Western Port Whisperer offers the young at heart an active lifestyle in our secure, tranquil and well established lifestyle resort
Enjoy being cared for Willow lodge village situated in the heart of Bangholme on the Frankston-Dandenong Road offers owner occupation accommodation on a permanent basis. We comprise some 45 acres of land and have 409 permanent sites with approximately 600 residents.
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Western Port News 3 July 2012
THE Whisperer is being transmitted out of the bunker where he has taken refuge from the new carbon tax. He is writing in the dark to save power, and is breathing very lightly to reduce his output of carbon dioxide. This is the only version of this column, as he has had to stop using carbon paper for a copy. The Whisperer is wondering what he would do if he was one of the companies now subject to the carbon tax. He wonders if the CEOs woke up on Sunday morning, and started jotting out notes on how they would stop or reduce their polluting ways, and become green companies. He comes to the conclusion that they probably just sent out a memo on Monday morning that read something like this: “Carbon tax is in. Lift prices accordingly.” While the clean air in our country belongs to all of us, and those taking from us deserve some form of punishment, the Whisperer thinks that a system that allows the polluter to simply pass on the increased cost is flawed. Not only will the average Australian not have their clean air back, but they’ll have to pay a premium for not having it back. It just doesn’t seem right. The Whisperer has been thinking about other methods of punishment and will write to the Prime Minister from his bunker accordingly. Dear Julia, Sorry for the messy handwriting, but I am writing in the dark so as to reduce the effects of the carbon tax on my lifestyle. I think the new tax is somewhat flawed, but rather than just complaining about it like all those Liberal politicians, I thought I’d offer some helpful suggestions on how to get those grubby little CEOs to stop polluting. The Whisperer would like to suggest that a CEO who lifts prices to cover this new tax, and thus make life harder for the avaerage working Australian, be made to watch Masterchef every night for a month. On top of this, every time that a contestant cries, they must reduce their company’s pollution by 10 per cent. Likewise, when any contestant slices a body part open by trying to cut up an artichoke too quickly, they must reduce their CEO pay packet by 10 per cent. Whenever a contestant talks about “following their food dream” they are not allowed to outsource jobs to India for a year. You get the idea. I’d also like to suggest legislation against what The Whisperer calls “the Iced VoVo effect” where you pay the same price but get less. The effect got its name from the fact that Iced VoVo once had a generous amount of marshmallow in them, but can now only be measured in microns. The same effect can be seen in snack chocholate and even the humble Big Mac, which should be renamed the Medium Mac. That should be put in the legislation, too. Assuming that prices are going to rise, the carbon tax appears to be punishing the victim. Surely there is a better way. The average Joe on the street is doing it tough, and The Whisperer sees this new tax as increasing, not decreasing, the divide between haves and have-nots. The Whisperer is all for making the polluters pay, but he is not sure you’ve got it right. Thanks for your time, Prime Minister. I
hope things are getting better between you and Kev. Regards, The Whisperer Somewhat stunned by the first sunlight he had seen in days, the Whisperer staggered to the nearest post box and mailed his letter. He then wandered back to his bunker and resumed residence. In the dark, and thinking of better times. *** THERE certainly is a cost to carbon, and the Whisperer is wondering if that cost is being beaten about the head by a blizzard of socalled facts and figures by politicians and other interest groups. Climate warming? It’s all leaving the Whisperer rather cold. Carbon tax Sunday dawned and, no, the sky didn’t fall in. But the sun didn’t shine either. At least not on Western Port. In a 30 June new release, Hastings MP Neale Burgess (Liberal) quotes a report by Deloitte Access Economics, which estimates that by 2020 the carbon tax will cost Victoria $7.7 billion. “… according to the data, the local government area of the Mornington Peninsula will not gain 187 jobs from now until 2020, with that figure decreasing slightly to 186 by 2030”. At the Whisperer’s bidding, his colleagues at The News were told that the “figures relate to the numbers of jobs forgone – or those that will not be created during the relevant periods mentioned – due to the carbon tax”. Meanwhile, almost 300 organisations under the banner of Businesses for a Clean Economy support a price on carbon. The 299 large, medium and small sized businesses and associations include AGL, ARUP, Fujitsu, GE, Grocon, HESTA, Ikea, Infigen, Pacific Hydro, the Body Shop Australia, Unilever, Vestas and Westpac. The group has issued a statement stating that stable, long-term policies – like a carbon price – are “necessary to drive investment and innovation, and ensure Australia remains competitive as the world transitions to a clean economy”. The Whisperer is no expert and is the first to admit Flinders MP Greg Hunt (Liberal) is more suited to claim that title. So we can only accept his claims that the carbon tax will “impact” three Hastings-based businesses. Mr Hunt told the parliament the businesses were Sunbather Pool Technologies, Carroll’s Injection Moulding and Jack Thompson Engineering. Elsewhere in the economy, businesses likely to benefit from the carbon tax include Algae. tech (algae carbon capture for biofuels), Carnegie Wave Energy (“renewable” wave energy) and Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd (“micro-combined heat and power”). And, yes, there is a link to Mr Hunt’s electorate and at least one of those companies lined up to benefit from the carbon tax. Carnegie’s chief operating officer Greg Allen grew up in Leongatha. The company has also received a federal (Labor) government grant. thewhisperer@y7mail.com
Holiday art classes and all that jazz OAK Hill Gallery’s annual members show opened with a blast on Sunday afternoon with jazz-blues band Those Blokes performing as well as food, wine and the labours of 170 artists in winter. The show in the gallery at 100 Mornington-Tyabb Rd, Mornington, runs until the end of July and is sponsored by the Tallis Foundation and Canson Australia. Oak Hill is running children’s art workshops during the school holidays with two-hour sessions costing $15. Details and bookings on 5973 4299.
Just bluffing: Peninsula artist, art teacher and printmaker Billie Nye with her abstract of Red Bluff, Mornington.