Ratbags: We want tax; Unions: We want lower income.

I have been amazed that, when we have been running "NO CARBON TAX" rallies, there have been counter rallies, although much smaller, of people chanting that they want a CARBON TAX. Looking at these people, I have thought that they probably are professional students and unemployed. Surely, not income tax payers? (Just my own opinion and not the opinion of the "NO CARBON TAX" Climate Sceptics party.)

Be that as it may, I never thought that I would find unions saying:

What do we want?                     less money!
When do we want it?                 Now!


Surprisingly, we find that  is what is happening. I am not sure if the unions realise that, if Australian businesses are penalised by a repressive carbon dioxide tax, some businesses will move off-shore, some will struggle, some will fold and some will give up and close down. Jobs will disappear and the Centre-link queues will grow. (Probably the only growth area in the Australian economy!))

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Putting a price on carbon will slow workers' income growth, but the ACTU believes the short term pain will be worth it once the Australian economy adapts to the federal government's measures to tackle climate change.

The article goes on to quote the ACTU's legal work co-ordinator (Is that like the job that PM Gillard did for the AWU?) Joel Fetter.

"We will clearly have lower income than the income we could generate if we continued to burn dirty coal and we continued with business as usual."

This left the opposition with an obvious retort:

Opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt said the union movement had abandoned its members by supporting a carbon tax.
"It is appalling that this organisation, which is supposed to be about representing workers, is happy to let their members' income be cut," he said.

What do we want?                     less money!  (and less jobs)
When do we want it?                 Now!