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Last updated on May 17th, 2017 at 02:29 pm
November 2007. Kevin Rudd is worried about the cost of petrol:
Rising food and petrol prices, coupled with recent interest rate rises, were putting extraordinary pressures on families, he said.
“The playback that I get from communities across the country is that families are under real financial pressure,” he said.
May 2008. That pressure will increase, thanks to Kevin Rudd:
An emissions trading scheme is likely to increase petrol prices by about 10 cents a litre …
- If it saves even one polar bear…Posted by Mystery Meat on 2008 05 08 at 12:56 PM • permalink
- Rudd wants lower gas prices and less greenhouse gasses. He also wants candy falling from the sky, with rainbows, and unicorns playing peak-a-boo in bushes of naturally spun gold.Posted by wronwright on 2008 05 08 at 01:09 PM • permalink
- By the way, if Treacher tells anyone I owe him attribution and a royalty for the above, tell him I won’t pay. I’m a Republican.Posted by wronwright on 2008 05 08 at 01:12 PM • permalink
- #3 Virgins! You forgot the virgins! Oh, and because you’re a Republican, you can’t blame that memory lapse on Treacher. Karl said so.Posted by Deborah Leigh on 2008 05 08 at 04:38 PM • permalink
- So all an individual has to do to exceed Rudd’s “$1 per person per year” promise is to purchase ten litres of fuel.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2008 05 08 at 05:00 PM • permalink
- #12 Hank: I’ll have fully research the context of the alleged promise, but I belive that Mr Rudd actually said that our costs of Kyoto compliance would be less than eight cents per day, per person.
That’s less than $30 per person per year. I spill more than that in lattes!
I think it’s worth it, to save the planet.
- Don’t believe him!!
Our government said that we would make $500million a year in carbon trading but now it is costing us over a $1 billion. And we contribute less as a country to carbon emissions than Al Gore uses in his private jets and endangered Sea bass barbies.
Brian Smaller
New ZealandPosted by brian_smaller on 2008 05 08 at 05:16 PM • permalink
- (a) In November of 2007, Rudd notes that high prices are putting “extraordinary pressures” on families;
(b) In May 0f 2008, Rudd takes steps that will increase prices – and, presumably, pressure – on ordinary families;
Therefore, Rudd believes that adversity will help ordinary families build character.
If this syllogism is true, then by the end of his government’s tenure, ordinary families should be veritable pig bladders of good character, bursting at the seams, aslosh with stoic endurance.
- #13. Here is the transcript.
“KEVIN RUDD: In terms of the whole economy what the modelling from MMA demonstrates is that the total impact on the economy will be marginal over time. That is that they calculate that between now and about 2045 that you’d be looking at a total impact on the economy of somewhere between $600 and $800 million or something in the vicinity of $45 per person over that period of time or something like $1 per person per year.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2008 05 08 at 05:51 PM • permalink
working
.He left out a word in his cliche.
#14
Commisserations, Brian.***
Look, cars are going to have to get bigger because when we run out of caves people will have to live in their cars. No petrol or oil to operate the vehicles, and no electricity for anything. A car will just become a home.
There you go. Parity with Kevvie’s childhood. Taking us back to the 1960s. His memory of his life in the ‘60s.
Mind you, I reckon his memory’s worse than mine!
- A tankful of petrol has gone up $20
A carton of rum cans has gone up $25.In light of this I have decided that this little working family must reprioritise expenditure and make lifestyle changes.
I’ve just put new tyres on the pram. The exercise and fresh air will do the missus and kids no end of good.
- No wonder he only has staged media events.
This “man” is a pussy, and I’m being unkind to cats!
Deconstituting jelly would have greater sterness than this limp, lip licking, wax ear connoisseur, script blabberer, bowling ball head, public servant model fascist!
And those are his good points!
Swan said recently that “working families” was inclusive of everyone. Meaningless gibberish the media just fawned and repeated like the lemmings they are.
- For Ruddle’s future, see the goings-on in Britain. Suddenly, carbon taxes are less popular, and the governments that propose them.Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 08 at 07:54 PM • permalink
- It’s not that long ago that I was paying under $1 a litre for diesel.
My last tank fill was more like $1.70 – a 70% increase.
Am I driving less?
No.
Will an extra 10c make any difference to my fuel consumption?
No.
It’s straight out revenue raising. I wish Rudd would simply have the balls to say so. Pussy footing around a topic like this and making up excuses gets up my nose more than the tax increase.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 05 08 at 08:17 PM • permalink
- #23 – Swan said recently that “working families” was inclusive of everyone. Meaningless gibberish the media just fawned and repeated like the lemmings they are.
I’m not sure what Swan would make of the welfare-bludging famililes in our sink estates that have not seen a paying job in three generations.
“Working families” my arse. Working at what? Stealing our cars, dealing drugs, housebreaking and welfare fraud?
I guess Krudd will redefine those activities as work shortly so that these people can be classified as “self-employed”.
Posted by mr creosote on 2008 05 08 at 08:21 PM • permalink
- It never fails to amaze me that people who push for big reductions in GHG emissions don’t realize that the only way this can be done is to make fossil fuels exorbitantly expensive, one way or another—taxes, carbon credits, etc. They also tend to be the same people who scream the most about high fuel prices and how they hurt the poor.
The price of gasoline has basically doubled in the US recently, and consumption is down a whole 1.5%. What does that tell you about what it will take to get to 20%, 40%, 60%, or 80% reductions?
- Hi, my name’s Kevin and I’m a draconian outrage.
Luvviefest 2007…
This draconian outrage has shaken Australia awake
Howard’s response – a five-year takeover of 60 indigenous communities, with soldiers and police overseeing alcohol and pornography bans, the part-quarantining of welfare payments to parents to ensure money is spent on food and other necessities, and the compulsory testing of Aboriginal children for sexual abuse – stunned Australia. Initial confusion soon gave way to condemnation of the plan as draconian, racist, unworkable, an ill-conceived shock-and-awe campaign, a cunning land grab and a black Tampa doomed to fail. Howard’s past was rebounding.
2008…
A NATIONAL welfare card that will allow the Government to control payments to negligent parents across the country will be unveiled in Tuesday’s budget.
The debit card – to be introduced in selected indigenous communities before being rolled out across Australia – will ensure half of the cardholders’ welfare payments are spent on approved goods and services, such as food and clothing for their children, rather than wasted on alcohol and drugs.
- 8 & 11 Don’t know where you folks are, but in my neighborhood (Los Angeles) people will scream if it goes up five cents. They will drive to a farther station if is is lower, not realizing that they will have used their savings in the trip.Posted by Deborah Leigh on 2008 05 08 at 09:13 PM • permalink
- Quoll, hell, it’s 40 years since Reagan was California’s governor and the lefties are still blaming him for the homeless.
Oh, and don’t forget JFKLBJ Nixon’s War…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 05 08 at 09:16 PM • permalink
- monaro—Yeah, God knows you can’t get any of that stuff with foodstamps. The merchants are just too honest.Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 05 08 at 09:21 PM • permalink
- #13 Kaboom, you state that $30. per person a year is worth it in order to save the planet. Wouldn’t you rather keep the money and decide how to spend it, rather than allowing the government to take it for whatever hair brained scheme they wish to?Posted by Deborah Leigh on 2008 05 08 at 09:24 PM • permalink
- Green porno? Ingrid Bergman would have been so proud…
…in my neighborhood (Los Angeles) people will scream if it goes up five cents. They will drive to a farther station if is is lower, not realizing that they will have used their savings in the trip.
Deborah, you’ve just described the Anabel Principle.
When it comes to petrol prices, Australian consumers are less rational than a Wahhabi with acute porphyria.
They’re more worried about the few extra dollars a rise in the price of petrol will add to their car running costs than they are in the hundreds of dollars it will add to their grocery bills. And while they’re prepared to jump through hoops to save a few bucks on petrol, their quite content to haemorrhage money on all many of follies and trinkets while hocking themselves up to the eyeballs.
This hysteria has allowed the nation’s two largest supermarkets, in cahoots with major oil companies, to implement a pea and shell trick so audacious that Benny Hinn wouldn’t consider undertaking it.
Save four cents a litre at Shell with your Coles shopping docket!
Save four cents a litre at Caltex with your Woolworths shopping docket!
Don’t worry that it’s only a saving of $1.60 when you fill your Corolla with $60 worth of fuel, or $2.40 when you fill your Camry with $90 worth.
Don’t worry that the independent service stations are selling their petrol two or three cents cheaper to begin with.
Don’t worry that you can easily pay a $1.60 more on a single item at Coles or Woolworths than you would at Franklins or Aldi, and not even the bastard child of Helen Wellings and Scrooge McDuck could pick out a cheaper basket of goods at the former pair.
Wow, what a deal! I’m a moron, sign me up.
- Coming soon, the all-insect-remake of Casablanca
Rick: Bzzt..the problems of two thousand little mayflies don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world…mmm, hill of beans…we’ll always have that open sewer in Paris…soon you’ll regret it – not today, not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life, or the day after tomorrow, whichever comes first…bzzt…
- $41
I’m with you Monaro.
I’ll buy from the independent.These idiots don’t realise that SOMEONE’s paying for their 4c/l discount, which isn’t worth a pinch of shit at the end of the day.
Better to fill at the bottom of the cycle and top up (Tue/Wed). Works for me.
Oh, it’s such a crap rip-off by Woolies and Coles that the local IGA supermarkets have 4c and 6c and 8c days off, and they just give you back your couple of dollars at the checkout when you give them your petrol docket from the other local servos (Usually Freedom).
- I save on fuel by getting rolling drunk. Somehow I always end up at home.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 05 08 at 11:33 PM • permalink
- I’m so disappointed in Ingrid. Couldn’t she have done ads for shampoos or incontinence products instead?Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 05 08 at 11:39 PM • permalink
- O/T Rudd Government rejecting assylum seekers at a higher rate than Howard Government…
Howls of outrage in 5… 4… 3… 2…
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Howls of outrage in 5… 4… 3… 2…
And now they’re only interested in asylum seekers detained on Nauru, rather than what was the other 95% of detainees…
In the heady whirl that has been Kevin Rudd’s first five months in office it’s been easy to forget just how much Australia has been changed by this particular change of government. The indigenous apology, Kyoto and the Pacific Solution were all quickly marked off like items on a shopping list as the Ruddolution rolled across the continent at breakneck speed.
This means with no more on Nauru, interest in the issue of mandatory detention has gone back to its pre-Howard level – 0%.
- 47 – indeed so, Pogria.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 05 09 at 12:44 AM • permalink
- While we’re on the subject of the Coles Group of companies, and pea & shell tricks, I was in Officeworks the other week looking to buy some of those pens that Rory Gilmore uses, and the cost was over $8 for a pack of four, yet under $2 for a pack of one.
Buy in bulk and pay for the privilege.
- #51 Kae,
re tonight, don’t forget what I said!!!
- #25 Pickles re Rudd’s refusal to answer questions.
If the truth be known, Rudd probably overslept and didn’t have time to rehearse his opening speech and the off-the-cuff answers to the media’s questions.
And an observation. Under Howard, Australia rapidly responded to world crises – the Asian tsunumai, the PNG tsuamai, the Bam earthquake in Iran, the Pakistan earthquake, the Bali bombing, the East Timor referendum come to mind. All I have heard from Rudd is talk about working with the UN and aid agencies to avoid duplication and co-ordinating efforts. Public service speak for doing nothing.
- Brian Smaller, New Zealand –
Our government said that we would make $500million a year in carbon trading but now it is costing us over a $1 billion. And we contribute less as a country to carbon emissions than Al Gore uses in his private jets and endangered Sea bass barbies.
And also my backyard grill, which completely negates any benefit New Zealand’s Kyoto efforts make. But still, NZ did promise. So pay up.
Now, don’t you feel better as a compliant member of the world economy?
Posted by wronwright on 2008 05 09 at 05:56 AM • permalink
- Should gas prices affect you driving?
31556926 Seconds/Year (Google search)
303824646 Population of US (2007 est, cia world factbook)
$13860000000000 Annual GDP of US (2007 est, cia world factbook)(13860000000000 $/year) / (303824646 people*31556926 seconds/year) = .0014456 $/person-second
30 miles/gallon at 55mph
23 miles/gallon at 75mph
25 miles/gallon at 70mph
28 miles/gallon at 65mph
3.62 $/gallon May 4th US average
1.63 person/vehicle
3600 second/hour(3.62 $/gallon * 55 mi/hour) / (30 miles/gallon * 3600 second/hour * 1.63 people) = .001131 $/person-second
(3.62 $/gallon * 75 mi/hour) / (23 miles/gallon * 3600 second/hour * 1.63 people) = .002012 $/person-second
(3.62 $/gallon * 70 mi/hour) / (25 miles/gallon * 3600 second/hour * 1.63 people) = .001727 $/person-second
(3.62 $/gallon * 65 mi/hour) / (28 miles/gallon * 3600 second/hour * 1.63 people) = .001432 $/person-second
Of course, this assumes that your daughter and grandmother are as likely to be the 1.63 occupants as you and your wife.
(Also, I don’t like that consumption curve. That 55mph tripe is based on old vehicles, and may also include big trucks. I know my 2002 Mazda protégé is at 3400RPM at 75mph, still in the flat part of the torque curve.)
This doesn’t cosider the unpaid value of peoples’ time. I know I value my free time at least as much I’m paid for work (obviously, I’d work much more if I didn’t, especially since I get time and a half).
At my pay, with just me in the car, and using that ridiculous consumption curve; at 75mph gas would need to cost $9.18 a gallon to wash out the cost of my time.
Using estimated after-tax $s (25%), gas would need to cost $6.88.
- Ah yes. Perhaps Ruddles will be soon having a url=http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2008/05/08/5504881-sun.html]”Brownian”[/url].
I point to this article because it also refers to our liberal scum bag Stephan Dijon, who, like all liberals, proposes to reduce gasoline (petrol) prices by gasoline increasing taxes.
But Dijon doesn’t cut the mustard… de-dum!
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 10 at 06:49 PM • permalink
- aaron_, interesting calculations. I like to take the following argumentation:
All resources are scarce.
The scarest resource has the highest priority.
There is only one truly finite and limited resource:
Time.
My time. Your time.
25000 days. 625,000 hours
If I can save 1 hour on a journey by burning another gallon of gas, I’ll do it.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 10 at 06:54 PM • permalink
- #52 Pogria, great link; reminds me of things friends have said … such as, when you dance, how come you don’t fall over? Simple. See exhibit eh. One shifts mass to overcome any particularly dangerous momentum vector.
It’s all gyroscopic, man!
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 10 at 08:55 PM • permalink
