Householders face the biggest Kyoto burden - NZ Herald
November 12th, 2009 | by admin |“Taxpayers will be stuck with 84 per cent of the bill for meeting New Zealand’s obligation under the Kyoto Protocol, while farmers and large industrial emitters get hefty subsidies, according to a report out today. ” NZ Herald 12th November 2009.
<RANT> I reckon the Kyoto rort is actually worse than it looks.
FARMERS
1. 15000 or so diary farmers will get subsidised to continue polluting our water and our air. It’s already beyond being a disaster - 70%+ of the Waikato waterways are deemed too toxic for humans OR animals to drink from! (Thank you for our extra payout this season Fonterra - why don’t you spend the extra money cleaning up after your members?).
2. It’s official - NZ is now being run by lobby groups - not via transparent democracy or the concept of a sustinable free market. The ‘free market’ mantra is out the door - the NZ taxpayer is subsidising farmers again - just like we did under Muldoon. (If it ain’t sustainable we are pouring money down thedrain - when will the folks in Wellie get with the program??)
3. The farmer’s subsidy means lower prices to Fonterra’s customer - including Nestle. In other words the subsidy we are giving the farmers goes offshore to multinational companies - many of which have very dubious records - even in the USA (e.g. Nestle grabbing water - see http://www.savemiwater.org/ or Google “nestle water michigan”).
And what do we get back in return - bugger-all. We still get stiffed top dollar for milk and cheese and our food prices rise faster than anywhere else in the world except for South Korea! And we are supposed to be a food producer. Something is VERY wrong with this picture…
CORPORATES
To add insult to injury, 75% of NZ’s major industrial companies are overseas owned. So about 75% of the net effect of the subsidy being enjoyed by the corporate sector eventually goes offshore. A lot of it to a country that has 5% of the world’s population but uses 25% of the world’s energy - the USA! How stupid is that? (Remind me - so why do we want a free trade agreement with the USA - do they need more of our subsidies???)
Seems to me that this policy is one of the dumbest to come out of Wellington in a long time - unless you are a farmer or a multinational corporate.
Roll on the next election. Then the 99% of voters who make up the rest of the population get to have a say!
</RANT>
