Cool, Clear

Well, with a Queensland Election coming up, the two (and a half) major parties are competing to see who can propose the most extravagant, inefficient, centrally planned dam in the stupidest places. I was starting to despair of finding anyone pushing a conservative solution that respected property rights and promoted individual water responsibility.  

This morning I found out a party promoting such a policy. The blasted Greens.

For the record, I can't stand half of Bob Brown's antics in the Senate. He's less a gadfly than a class clown. But even on the non-environmental policies they're not spectacularly more communist than the major parties, in what, under our current constitutional settlement, is a naturally tax-and-spend tier of government.

On separating the major parties in the crucial latter preferences, I guess it will have to come down to the stagnation of Labor against the slapstick performance of the Coalition. The Nationals do have at least some decentralising instinct left: they're planning to reinstate local hospital boards (PDF).

As it happens, both the major parties also tuck their policies into PDF documents, that hallmark of bland mass media pap hastily wrapped up for web distribution.

Polls all seem to indicate Beattie will get up again with ease. At least they won't have to repaint the traffic signal box on Edward and Albert St.
Permalink, Cool, Clear, Aug 2006, adam
cam: I read through their urban water policy the: other day with interest too, I think after they did their media release for it. I thought it interesting that they targetted industrial usage of water for conservation. IIRC in Sydney that accounts for 50% of urban usage. Presumably it is restaurants, hotels etc as well as factories.

Plenty mentions of regulation, no mention of market approaches to water. Ironically, if the Greens did adopt a market approach to water it might make some of the more unsustainable agricultural industries and practices uneconomical.

But yeh, well done Qld Greens on this issue.

cam
cam: IDRC: It was Melbourne I was thinking of, and commercial usage was 28% .

cam
adam: Yeah: I don\'t see what\'s stopping them eg raising the price of water, as I doubt many farmers vote for them anyway. I guess no-one likes to mention raising taxes at election time.
dlatimer: Raise price of water. Drop taxes: Double the price of water - use the extra income to lower taxes. Pensioners already get a discount.

Brisbane Water has sales of $400 million. If the cost of water doubled, then people would use less water and still $350 million extra would be raised.

With that money, the Queensland government could halve payroll taxes (or triple the exemption). Or it could eliminate all land taxes.

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