Imagine increasing the GST by 25%

That's what the emissions trading scheme means at the end of the day - it's a new tax on everything. (For non-Australians the GST is the Goods and Services Tax, or the VAT in Europe - it's a consumption tax.) From Tim Blair: UPDATE II. The Australian‘s Christian Kerr: The federal opposition is in a mess over the emissions trading scheme because its pitch is bad. Barnaby Joyce and his friends have got it right. The ETS is a tax on everything … There’s a great political pitch there: the ETS equals whacking 25 per cent on the GST … the ETS is only seen as a positive because it is only seen in abstract terms. Start talking about a 25 per cent hike in the GST and people will soon change their minds. Still, the opposition front bench just seem incapable of uttering a phrase that could end their woes. They should have been uttering similar phrases much earlier: “The politics are tough now because conservatives years ago allowed the debate to get away from them; frightened of being labelled nature-haters, they declined to attack anti-progress green arguments as they were being formed. Result: in 2009 they’re dealing with a full-blown religion, and they’re discovering that logic isn’t much of a weapon against faith.”

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