Carbon market will stabilise within a few years: Combet

Hmmmmm, and this is from a government that is going to buy $6 Billion worth of carbon credits on the international market (with tax payers money) to achieve their stated carbon goals. Are you kidding Mr Combet. Have you people got any idea of what your trying to achieve and what will be good for Australia. Well past time that politicians got their egos in check and stop trying to play with the big boys internationally and think about their constituents.

Carbon market = ponzi scheme run a mile

I like the fact that this government is concerned about pollution and in particular the atmosphere. $23 per ton for polluters is small bikkies when peoples' health is concerned. Would you only consider being a rich polluting country without any concerns for other countries by selling to them the polluting products that kills millions of people world wide and then saying we its costs some few dollars and can't afford to penalise the polluters here in Australia to clean up their act. What a joke!!! Everything in this world costs the average man, woman and child something and pricing carbon to the polluters only seams fair to me, big time.

Yannis, Australia contributes 1.1% to the world's carbon emmissions. I guess you can work out what the government's target of 20% reduction will have on that figure, while the largest emmiting countries will continue on their merry way. They are the ones you should be targeting with your misguided concerns. And in the mean time, Gillard and co. are unnecessarily forcing the prices on everything up, including your tofu.

Oh I agree Yannis. And I think most Australians do. But this scheme is diabolical in its duplicity and the lack of real results. Ms Gillard says its the companies paying the tax. But they're going to pass it onto us. Then the government is going to take all that tax, and give a little bit to renewable energy companies that cant get finance because in the real world the banks dont think they're a viable business proposition. And then, Ms Gillard is going to pay the polluters she's taxing to clean up their act. Then she's going to give everyone in Australia a handout, so when all the prices go up she wont feel so bad. Then shes going to spend $6 billion dollars on the international markets to buy carbon credits because this miraculous scheme she's invented doesn't actually reduce carbon enough. If that sounds confusing, IT IS. It's a pointless amount of pain and suffering by consumers and companies and will achieve,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NOTHING.

Stop lying Combet, you know bloody well that the businesses and companies your mob have chosen to call "big polluters" will pay nothing, they will simply pass it on in spades to the consumer otherwise why are you and blood nut compensating Labor's Australia? We all now know, given your class rhetoric that not all of us are in Labor's Australia. Combet also needs to stop talking about issues and what will happen beyond 2013 because he, Juliar, Boring Swanny and the other nodding donkeys won't be making the decisions after that. Good riddance.

We all agree then, that some things have to change, big time!!! I remember some 40 years ago when we used to see carnage on the streets from drink drivers and change did come in the form of penalties and fines and now we have much fewer deaths. Saving many hundreds of good Australians. Polluting the atmosphere is a big issue for me and I believe change needs to happen and soon. Bagging government repeatedly is not the answer to our problem. Whosoever is in power needs to do something, don't you think? Currently we have this government and it wants to do something by penalising the major polluters, so why not? Australia needs to take leadership of its actions when it makes so much money from selling polluting products. If you have any better ideas than what's currently on the table lets hear them, but to just keep on complaining about government, well you've lost me, big time, it's not the answer I am looking for. How are we going to start saving this beautiful planet of ours, that's the question we should all ponder on. Let's do something and "YES WE CAN"".

Constituents, constituents - what are constituents ?? Hey Pat I do a pretty good impression of Combet don't I ??

Yannis; Do you really believe that the "major polluters" as you have called them will actually be penalised or do you think they just may pass the costs on to the the likes of you and me? I hear what you are saying but on one hand you say that this government wants to do something and then on the next line you point out that they are making money from selling what some say are polluting products. In my books that makes them hypocritical. Bottom line Yannis is Australia is too small a player with only 22 million people to have any meaningful effect on world pollution and until the major players get fair dinkum the measures being introduced here will do doing nothing to reduce global pollution and the worst part about it is the government knows it. The believers who think that progress is being made are deluding themselves as despite all the good intent this is one thing we cannot change on our own.

Sorry Gentleman,visit China First, then tell me about pollution, I Have, the carbon tax is just that, a tax on employment.Enviromental issues are extremely important of course,but can be resolved with the developing technologies available both now and in the near future. "But forgive me, Dont We all need an income as well "

I know this, from life's experience, that if you look for leadership from the mass of billions of people in other countries then you are going to wait a long time. Governments I believe can behave like an individual and take leadership but only when we put pressure on them through our actions. They will and do take responsibility in most cases. This wonderful country of ours is renowned for taking action in times of difficulty. Look at the wars our forebears have been in. Maybe 8 or 9 and counting. Why did we go and do that? and you know why, because we believe in feedom and liberty but mostly we believe that all peoples where ever they come from have this right as well, not just us and a few dozen other countries. We have always taken "responsibility" seriously and we don't just follow other major powers to do something first. If only we look into the future and what we want to be in 5, 10, 15 or 50 years time, then the decisions we make today will be the hard ones we took to make that difference. Just remember we are a rich country endowered with beauty and heaps of resources. Lets not get caught up in a negative trance and sit on our hands and say, "WE CAN'T DO NOTHING BECAUSE WE ARE NOT BIG ENOUGH". Lets think big and say to each and all of us that we can make a difference and yes we can lick this problem of pollution. Everyone, will then look up and say, they are "Aussies", we can do it too because they showed us we can.

Yannis, while your position is admirable and that yes, we should be looking to reduce pollution on earth, the reality is that we ARE too small to have any significant influence on the larger countries who are the main polluters. To say they have no leadership is a little niave as all they really care about is their survival and their growth, and they probably neither care nor concern themselves with how many wars Australia has fought in or how many of our citizens bravely gave their lives for a cause they believed in. It also must be noted and remembered that this government, despite the rhetoric, did not bring in a carbon tax because they all of a sudden developed a conscience about sending a massage to the world. No, it was because they had to do a deal with the Greens to get power, and therefore it was just a cynical back flip, which as a consequence, will generate sufficient dollars to fund the 'Robin Hood' Labour idealogy of taking from the rich and giving to the poor to try and save an inept and incompetent regime. I'm all for thinking big, showing leadership and doing something, but, I'm sad to say, in this instance the big polluters will take absolutely no heed of what Australia is doing in terms of pollution reduction, as it has no bearing on their growth or their economy, that is, unless it effects the prices of the products it buys from us. Yannis, love your positive attitude, but we also must temper it with a touch of reality.

Does it always have to be about politics, always that we ARE too small a country to have any significant influence, always that this Labour government did this with the Greens to get into power and always about taking from the rich to give to the poor. I once again state, that the only issue for me is, if anybody is going to do something about reducing pollution of our atmosphere and thereby greenhouse gasses is, it can only start with us alone. I believe we can do it, as the people of this wonderful country, if only we agree that something has to be done and from what I understand, the majority of Australians think likewise because they do care about pollution no matter how wealthy they are. If that's the case then, then we should just let this government get on and do their best. Anything is better than nothing. Pricing carbon, to my understanding, is a good place to start but not the only means. Importantly, firstly, it's the courage to do something. It's about creating momentum. Once something gets going then you can address its shortfalls and shortcomings. I'm sure that it will not be the only thing that needs to be done but its a start. Once again, doing nothing is certainly not an option for us. We need to have courage, discipline and mostly the will to get on and do something. Just look what a small population has done, in a short span of time (225 years), for the only country continent on Earth called Australia. We have done it uptill now and we will continue to do it into the future regardless of the naysayers who keep finding reasons, usually selfish reasons for doing nothing. It seams to me very un-Australian to keep harping these very negative viewpoints. I know from personal experience that when you will yourself to do something the decision to do something is the most difficult one and once begun wonderful thing usually happen and I'm certain in my wisdom when I say we can do it, and now we will begin, at last!!