Today, something was said that resonates the importance of community consultations. The importance is that policy makers must understand that something good in the office is not always good for the target. In a story printed by ABC News 4 July 2012,  “Pastoralists say comments by the Federal Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, show he has no idea about the implications the carbon tax will have on their livelihood”.

Previously CO2Land org argued that the program options for landholders were CFI, BF and BAU. What was not clearly explained was that BAU is the easier option for farmers going broke slowly. It simply means farmers might not have an adequate succession plan in place to take advantage of the biodiversity fund (BF), and might prefer to wait for family or new owners to make decisions for CFI involvement. The crux of the problem is the individuals costs associated with bringing about change is greater than the immediate benefit.

In the ABC story, Mr Combet (Minister for Climate Change) said “that farmers are entitled to pass increased costs associated with their tax onto their customers”, and “The WA Pastoralists and Graziers Association’s Rob Gillam says that is impossible….Quite simply, farmers are price takers; we’re in a very, very weak position when it comes to stipulating the price,” he said…”We’ve always been price takers and not price makers and as much as we would like to receive more for our products there’s no way we can enforce it.”

CO2Land org gives Mr Gillam a hat tip (HT in twitter land) where he correctly says pastoralists are hit hard by the carbon tax and they are secondary recipients of the costing”. In logical assessment it is clear not paying attention to going broke slowly will be counter productive to the CFI intention and any kudos expected by ‘good policy’ will not accrue to any political party that cannot recognize the problem.