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Your views: on bushfires, climate change and land tax

Today, readers comment on the deputy PM branding any link between bushfires and climate changes the ravings of inner-city lefties, and the latest move in the land tax saga.

Nov 12, 2019, updated Nov 12, 2019
Photo: AAP/Darren Pateman

Photo: AAP/Darren Pateman

Commenting on the story: Deputy PM blasts “greenies’ ravings” linking bushfires to climate change

The trouble with the National Party is that they seem to have their heads permanently buried in the sand over climate change.

Our little-known Deputy PM appears incapable of having anything sensible to contribute.

Far more people are concerned about climate change and bushfires than live in the inner city (find ‘ideological scapegoats’ in pull down menu).

Major science agencies and bushfire experts are among those talking about a link between rising greenhouse gas emissions and increased bushfire risk.

Astonishingly but not surprisingly, another emergency is yet another opportunity for finger-pointing distractions and cynical disregard for the public interest and the truth. – Jim Allen

Bushfires and climate change are two distinct but related issues.  

The hysterical response by the Morrison government to the linking of the current bushfires to their history of failure to act on climate change only serves to highlight the extent of their culpability.

Despite the efforts of then Senator Hill, Australia chose to do nothing in response to the 1992 climate change conference. 

Could action then have stopped these bushfires?  Of course not, but there is a great deal that could have been done to mitigate the severity of their impact. 

So why are they in denial?  To admit that climate change is a contributing factor would imply that the government needs to stump up with a lot more than just prayers and that is just a bridge too far. John Töns

The Deputy PM is in denial.

We have a country prone to bushfires and a changing climate – i.e. climate change that all the experts tell us will extend the bushfire season and ferocity – and yet the Deputy PM puts his head in the sand.

He will still get his arse burned.Patrick O’Sullivan

Regarding Emergency Services Minister David Littleproud’s opinion that the climate change debate should wait: “Let’s have those conversations in the cold, hard light of day after the event.”

It’s been the cold, hard light of day for twenty years or more.

The Liberal governments in particular, but the ALP cannot cry innocent either, have systematically aided and abetted the destruction of the environment of Australia, whilst denying that is what they are doing.

They continue to mock those who point out to them what they apparently can’t see right in front of their faces.

They have refused these conversations for twenty years. What’s different now? Not much.

It’s still not time to have the conversation, apparently. Cathy Chua

Commenting on the story: REVEALED: Lucas’s land tax compo fund

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The more recent  iterations of the Government’s proposed land tax changes are all steps in the right direction.

By that I mean bringing South Australia’s radical outlier status closer in line with land tax regimes that apply across the rest of the country.

Our current land tax regime imposes rates of land tax many fold that of other states – and we wonder that the only investment we get is that which is heavily subsidised by the State. Unless you’re an administrator in the USSR that is unviable in the longer run.

So whilst aggregation may be an (necessary) evil, the real problem is with the rates and the thresholds at which they apply.

Top rates of 2.4% and 2.0% whilst not yet at the point of giving the State the competitive advantage it needs, are at least heading in the right direction.

Thresholds for the top rate with a 1 in front of them are not.

To become competitive with the rest of the country, we need top thresholds with at least a 5 in front of them.

 In my view, offering compensation for those affected by land tax changes is an admission of policy failure.

If we’re contemplating compensation we should preferably have a closer look at the broader policy changes and adjust them to more broadly effect a fair outcome and avoid the temptation of buying votes through compensation measures. John Wyk

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