EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

Carbon tax leads to more industry calls for support

AS part of its push to justify its carbon tax, the Gillard government has consistently sought to denigrate what it calls "the big polluters". In language similarly divisive to its class-warfare rhetoric against the mining magnates, Labor has blamed the nation's carbon emissions on the big polluters and stressed that it is they who will pay.

This is the nub of the government's plan -- as prices increase, low- and middle-income earners will be generously compensated, so the only people who pay are high-income earners and big polluters. Yet the government, we learn time and again, is compensating and even subsidising some of those very same big polluters, while economists warn against such assistance.

This is counterintuitive to the broader climate change debate because the proponents of carbon pricing constantly argue that the aim is to force so-called dirty industries to either clean up or close down, in favour of cleaner industries. When traditional manufacturing industries, such as automotive, steel and aluminium, face difficulties, the government has found money to subsidise them. So the government is talking about inflicting limited pain in order to gain a better future for the environment -- but then it intervenes to ensure there is no pain.

Julia Gillard rightly argues in the latest case -- Alcoa's Point Henry aluminium plant in Victoria -- that it faces many economic challenges such as the high dollar, depressed global markets and ageing capital stock. Similar arguments have applied to the steel and automotive industries. The carbon tax becomes just another impost, and given the compensation measures for these energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries, its impact can be quite marginal or even non-existent. But the fact remains that the carbon tax applies, and the government is seen to be bailing out some of the same big polluters it otherwise demonises.

Part of the problem, of course, is political, with union leaders grudgingly supporting the carbon tax, conditional on protection for jobs. This means that the Prime Minister is on notice from the very people who installed her in the leadership. So while many industries face a range of pressures, most noticeably the high dollar, the government is in a political bind. This is bound to increase the likelihood of unwise expenditure.

As a newspaper committed to market economics and suspicious of direct government intervention, The Australian is concerned by the continued resort to industry assistance. Both major parties have fallen victim to special pleading from various industries at state and federal level for decades. Yesterday, Productivity Commissioner Gary Banks and other leading economists added to these warnings, pointing out that money allocated to assistance packages robs the nation of investment in other areas and shelters recipients from new challenges. Governments need to break the habit but, ominously, the union movement has started to argue for more assistance to protect the manufacturers that sustain its membership base. These political and economic realities, combined with the self-imposed pressure of the mishandled carbon tax, are increasing the potential for wrong-headed interventions. Alcoa and Point Henry are unlikely to be the last to ask for taxpayer-funded assistance.

National shame in The Alice

THE violence and dysfunction that alcohol helps to generate in some indigenous communities is a national disgrace. The shame is often hidden from view in remote communities or isolated towns, but it is difficult to avoid for anyone visiting Alice Springs, where tourists see the barbed wire and barred windows by day that provide a hint of the unruly behaviour they are warned to avoid at night.

We have been given a distressing insight into this reality by the Northern Territory Police Association's submission to a coronial inquiry into the death of Kwementyayre Briscoe, who died in the police watchhouse in January. Any death in custody is a tragedy and warrants careful investigation, and we certainly make no pre-judgment of this case. But the NTPA's submission laid bare the constant struggle on the streets at the heart of our Red Centre.

Indigenous women and children bear the brunt of brutal, alcohol-fuelled behaviour, as too many men drink themselves to an early grave. Each night, police must place themselves between drunken boys and men, and more harm, as they take the inebriated into protective custody. The submission describes the police duties as "such mind-numbing, de-sensitising and soul-destroying work as to be heroic". The abuse of alcohol, and the abuse of people by alcohol-fuelled criminals, are problems that manifest themselves across the country, in all socio-economic and ethnic groups. Indigenous Australians are not alone in that respect, but proportionately the problem is dramatically worse in some indigenous communities. And Alice Springs is the epicentre for the dilemma because it is a magnet for a range of communities and it is where the crisis comes into direct contact with a sizeable population and significant numbers of domestic and international visitors. Perhaps we should be grateful for this, because it means we cannot hide from the problems -- we must fix them in The Alice and in the hidden communities.


The NTPA is forced to tackle the symptoms, hour by hour. It calls for a review of alcohol availability as a medium-term measure. There are many aspects to consider but the ultimate resolution must be found in adequate education and employment for indigenous communities. And we must continue to be confronted by our national shame until we overcome it.

Egypt opts for the Brotherhood

THE success of the Muslim Brotherhood -- for the 84 years, the Arab world's most influential Islamist organisation -- in winning the presidency of Egypt, the Middle East's biggest country, is an event of seminal importance that will have far-reaching consequences for the region and beyond.

For decades, the Brotherhood has been ruthlessly suppressed, especially since the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat, architect of the Camp David Accords and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Now it is the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, a religious conservative who discourages dissent and has strongly supported reserving the highest office in the land for male Muslims, who will be Egypt's first president since last year's Arab Spring uprising. There has been rejoicing in places such as Gaza, where Hamas's hardline leadership has close Brotherhood ties. US senator John Kerry is right to counsel against pre-judging Mr Morsi, but it is equally important not to ignore the Brotherhood's long-standing pre-eminence as a hardline organisation that believes Muslim doctrine is the sole reference point for ordering family life and that of the state. This will deeply concern many liberal democrats at the forefront of last year's uprising as well as the 10 per cent of Egyptians who are Coptic Christians. In the election, Mr Morsi tried to present a different face; one of moderation. And the reality he confronts is that as a result of a series of manoeuvres orchestrated by the Mubarak generals through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the Brotherhood-dominated parliament has been dissolved and the presidency shorn of its powers over the budget, foreign affairs, army and drafting of a new constitution. Having won a comfortable victory by 52 to 48 per cent over General Ahmed Shafik, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, Mr Morsi is now well-placed to confront the generals. He'd be wise to move cautiously. Egypt is now even more polarised. Restoring effective government to a country that has been in chaos for 16 months and has an economy in ruins is not going to be achieved through Islamic sloganeering or the Brotherhood's uncompromising religious dogma. The challenge to Mr Morsi is to govern for all Egyptians, not just the narrow sectional interests of Islamists whose doctrines are alien to the liberal and democratic ideals of Tahrir Square. Unless he does so, there will be no end to Egypt's agony.