Co-operatives are the future

People are breaking the law by making their own fuel?

An underground movement of motorists is making fuel in their backyards and saving up to $1 a litre to run their diesel engines.

As oil prices continue to soar to historic highs, they are following an easy recipe available on the internet for making biodiesel fuel and putting it straight into their engines without modification.
SMH

That's fantastic. It is ingenious, it is creative, it is benficial to Australia in every way. Except tax revenue.

Few are willing to admit publicly that they make the brew because the Federal Government imposed a new tax and costly tests. …

Under the federal laws, even backyard producers must pay $1400 for a test to ensure that every batch meets Australian standards. They must also pay a fuel excise of 38 cents a litre.

Look, the $1400 I can probably go with if they are going to test it, but the tax is ridiculous. The government should be paying them to be making it. Actually, somebody should set up a co-operative, pool money for this test and demand money from the Government - these people are making their own, small contribution to the balance of payments, but more importantly, firstly by not (ultimately) sending their money overseas to some Middle Eastern dictatorship (benevolent or otherwise), but also because there is a good chance that money ended up improving their own small business or that of someone else.

That will never happen though. Not while the Government isn't getting their 38 cents in the dollar. If any of them get arrested, it will be another nail in the coffin of the Liberal Party claiming to stand for small business. Next step, Telstra will be able to charge us line rental for Skype.
Permalink, Co-operatives are the future, Aug 2005, avocadia
cam: This is the networked republic in action:

The retarded staticism of centralism vs innovative and locally advanced decentralism. As tech gets into the hands of individuals the barriers of entry and centralised regulation structures become irrelevant, unenforcable and inhibit innovation.

We have our heavily centralised nation-states fighting oil wars in the Middle East to stabilise their energy supply, and presumably it seems, their domestic oil tax base. Yet they are getting out innovated by individuals locally. Awesome. I do believe these people routed around damage in the energy system - like packets do on a decentralised data network.

cam
Felix the Cassowary: A horse! A horse! My democracy for a horse!: A democracy is the best system of government for tyrants, because the people think they’re in control—when they’re not. I hope I\'m not too optimistic when I say that fortunately, our society is sufficiently well-educated that things like this will keep the Government at bay. But perhaps I\'m too pessimistic and have read John Howard and Phillip Ruddock\'s recent utterances about safety and liberty in the wrong light.

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