The Labor MP Ed Husic vowed to keep pushing for a 25% export levy, predicting the groundswell of public support would eventually be too hard for Albanese to ignore.
Husic challenged Albanese’s description of the gas tax campaign as “populist”, noting the same label was used to described Labor’s drive for a royal commission into the banks.
I am glad someone from Labor is sticking up for the levy. Over time, keeping in mind the international situation, the levy should continue to be kept front of mind for when some semblance of ‘normality’ returns.
Well, we all know where albo has his next feathered.
He sure as hell is not a man of the people, rather, a man of foreign corporate interest.
Lobbying. We have to take control of it, and cut the corruption out at the knees.
Lobbying. We have to take control of it, and cut the corruption out at the knees.
This is the problem with only doing democracy every 3 years.
Most community orgs are more democratic than our federal parliament, as the membership have the right to recall/vote of no confidence… We don’t have that right over our MPs.
We need a complete reinventing of our democratic structures.
His story is about personal achievement and class transcendence. He doesn’t give a shit about people from similar class background. Go back and watch his election speech. Self serving and narcissistic.
Unpopular decision, potentially smart politics:
Albo knows taxing gas exporters is a popular decision.
He also knows that:
- The Greens are for it
- The Liberals are against it
- One Nation’s follows are for it, but their politicians get paid by big resources execs and they’ll withhold funding or move funding back to the liberal party if One Nation politicians back the tax on exporters.
The politically smart move for Albo now is to say they’re not going to add the tax, then 6 months before the next election he switches to wanting it implemented and makes it one of their primary running issues.
- The libs won’t have any support for it (further hurting their chances of being elected)
- People will say that One Nation is only pretending to support it since they get funding from the resource extraction sector.
- And the greens will already be running on it with most of their preferences flowing to labor anyway.
Yeah that’s an interesting take. It is political suicide to talk about taxing resources in any fashion… so best to throw it out with a short time frame rather than letting resource companies run long term albo smear campaign. Now, having said that… If nothing gets taxed I’ll flip the table
The fact that the Labor government won’t do something very popular is evidence that it does not care about the wishes of the Australian people, and that we don’t have real democracy in this country.
The cop out of “it’s too hard” is tired. If they wanted, they could utilise popular opinion to tell the gas companies to get fucked, and that we’d happily buy and run the infrastructure ourselves, it’d be all the same employees, just minus the middle men. The people are clamoring for some radical reform.
The Labor party is a neo-liberal cente party though, so will never happen.
It has proven to be political suicide in the past, but given how fractured the right currently is in Australia - the ALP might just be able to get it through as a campaign promise next election.
Hope you’re on the money!
Fucking coward government.
I am all for a hike in Gas taxes. I am also impressed that the article lists the Governments reasons up front in the sub heading. Albo just spent the past few weeks tradeing access to our Gas exports for access to their Fuel exports. quid pro quo. Now is not the time to break those agreements.
I’m also glad I read down to the Punters Politics quote. Way to lie and project criticism directed at you on to others. I will remember to take everything he says with a grain of salt from now on.I have been onboard with increased resource taxes for a very long time.
I have to admit the middle of a global supply crunch and impending global recession with several years of inflationary pressure is kind of a shit time to be wrenching on the control knobs. Especially when the government has been leveraging our fossil fuel capacity to obtain access to refined fuel required for farming and industry. These reforms should have happened under Rudd or Gillard.
There are some on the right whose handlers do not want these taxes who know the government is not in a good position to do anything currently but are happy to benefit from the rising discontent.
Meanwhile the left is crucifying the ALP and its driving people to ON and not to the Greens or Socialists. ON are thoroughly owned by the mining industry and people like Gina. Its a massive own goal. Much like all the idiots who campaigned against the admittedly shit Dems in the US and drove people to Trump. Stupid, spiteful and immature.
On the other hand Albo needs to get the message that he serves us and not elites. He is going to need to make concessions and start tackling tough issues or populists are going to come in on a wave of lies and wipe out the piddly incremental gains his government has made on top of decades of Labor reforms. We can’t afford that bullshit in the current information environment.
