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Carbon tax bribes and leadership issues

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by Peter Switzer

The big question for all of us as we await the carbon tax details on Sunday is, can the bribes we will be offered to accept a tax at a time when the economy is weaker than both the Reserve Bank and the Federal Treasury predicted, be enough to offset the fear of the cost of the tax and the fact that Julia has two big monkeys on her back?

Regular readers know I minimise political analysis as it always brings reactions that I’m biased, but I do try to assess policies based on the economic and financial impacts on investors, business owners and consumers. That’s my gig.

And remember I have a book out there called Carbon Crunch, which will have to be updated after Sunday, but this will be good for sales of Carbon Crunch Mk II.

Two monkeys

Julia’s two monkeys are OK to carry around if you’re a head-kicking politician, like the old Tony Abbott before he was made leader. In the old days, the ALP’s Richo, now my colleague on Sky News, had a few scalps and questionable political actions that would have made it hard for him to challenge for the leadership of his party and the country.

Julia has the kneecapping of Kevin Rudd – an elected PM – on her charge sheet. He’s still the most popular PM option for Labor supporters and arguably for the country as a whole.

And another reason Julia has lost friends and influence is because she promised no carbon tax before the election and she broke that promise.

Leadership explained

Over the past week I have been with US leadership guru, John Maxwell and have MC’d a leadership conference in Fiji and the importance of integrity, trust and vision, as well as the role model effect are important issues for leaders.

Maxwell says everything rises and falls on leadership and this ability is all about influence – plain and simple.

Greens influence

There’s a national feeling that this lie was forced upon the PM by Bob Brown as the Greens are vital to Labor’s survival. One seat lost and the government is no longer able to govern.

I suspect Bob twisted Julia’s arm to break her promise in this term of parliament and therefore he has the influence over the PM and so he in effect is the nation’s real leader!

The person with the key influence is the effective leader and the other ‘leader’ takes a puppet’s role.

That’s why the compensation next week will be bribes to win back the disaffected Labor voters first, and second the middle-class voters who swing on the fistful of dollars they either win or lose at an election.

Timing all wrong

I always knew some kind of carbon policy was coming, that’s why I wrote the book and I wanted to understand it for business owners, but I can’t see why we need to take a leadership role on this when the big emitters are China, India and the US.

We should cooperate with a world committed to reducing pollution but we don’t need an economic monkey on our back when the economy is so weak at the moment.

You don’t have to be Terry McCrann or Craig James to work out that you don’t add a new tax to an economy when it’s struggling to grow. The whole timing of this carbon tax represents leadership failure! Hope you do well with the bribes offered on Sunday.

Important information:This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. For this reason, any individual should, before acting, consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to the individual’s objectives, financial situation and needs and, if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice.

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Published on: Thursday, July 07, 2011

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