Policy on the Environment
If we are elected as the Australian Government, we will not have a carbon emission trading scheme, or so-called carbon tax. The scheme would only make sense if our long-term aim was to replace fossil fuels with solar power and wind power. Our long-term aim, however, is to replace fossil fuels with nuclear fusion, in which sea water is the fuel, and helium is the waste product. A carbon emission trading scheme will not send the right market signals. As a State Government, however, we do intend to invest in wind generators as part of the State electricity infrastructure, and we will encourage households to use solar water heating.
We will also introduce a container deposit scheme for soft drink, beer and wine bottles and cans. We will ban plastic shopping bags and insist on paper bags instead. We will ban oil tankers with single skinned hulls from the Australian contiguous sea zone and the Torres Strait. We will buy mulching machines for making firebreaks by mulching vegetation, as opposed to the current practice of controlled burning which will be phased out.
We will introduce a “Kill the Wabbit Policy” of eliminating certain species from the country, except for a few offshore islands, parks, aquariums and embryo banks. Land species that will be targetted will include bindi, cane toads, cockroaches, crocodiles, dingoes, flies, gorse, kikuyu grass, mosquitoes, poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, prickly pear, thistles, rats, wild cats, wild pigeons, and wild rabbits. Marine species that will be targetted will include crown-of-thorns starfish, mangroves, poisonous jellyfish, sharks (other than whale sharks), stingrays and stonefish. Mangroves are important to prevent erosion and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, but are drab and unattractive in comparison to other trees which perform the same function and look nicer.