What a load of smoke

So every household is going to get a one off payment to compensate for the introduction of a carbon emissions tax on electricity next year.

Probably a piffling $112 in exchange of the 10% rise to our power bills.

That won't buy much in the way of insulation or thick curtains. It won't even buy a decent clothes line let alone solar water heating or a small wind turbine.

Thanks to the Kyoto protocol we are supposed to reduce our emissions back down to 1990 levels.

That is all well and good but...... in 1990 this was a household of two, with a pair of cats, one car and a bus ticket. They had a fridge, a washing machine and a seldom used drier but no freezer, TV or computer.

These days it is a household of five with two cars, two (soon to be three) bus tickets and all of the above.

As much as she who budgets would like to cut back the energy use there are limits to what can be achieved with 2½ times more washing and showering required. The drier is still seldom used.

The real irony is this is still a household with low power usage.

If big corporates can get compensation and negotiate down the cost of their carbon taxes why can't we?