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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 390 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
of tax by, in fact, Labor and Liberal because they are so concerned that they will lose votes. The surveys of the broad community say that if people really believe that taxes are going to be properly and fairly distributed and appropriately spent, they do not mind paying them.
Obviously a key platform of the Greens on taxation is ecological taxes, because ecological taxes recycled into the economy would lower pollution and increase employment. Our current taxation system has a negative impact. It is encouraging pollution and resource depletion. It encourages waste and discourages conservation.
We need a tax system which encourages positives, such as employment and investment. Labour costs can be reduced through increasing pollution charges. The GST, particularly thanks to the Democrats, does the opposite by reducing excise on diesel fuel, encouraging more use of fuel and consequent pollution. I would like to read just a short section from a paper by Robert Constanza, Herman Daley, Paul Hawken and John Woodwell on ecological taxes because they can say it much better than I can:
The proposed tax reform would replace much of the current income tax with a "natural capital depletion tax" aimed at providing incentives to use natural resources and ecosystems (natural capital) in sustainable ways. Consumption of natural capital would be taxed to the extent that the material is not recycled, thus encouraging "closed loop" use. Use of fossil energy (which of course cannot be recycled) would be taxed but may be offset by credits for investment in renewable alternatives. This provision would encourage development of energy efficient technology and renewable sources of energy. Non-sustainable uses of ecosystems would be taxed. This provision would encourage sustainable uses of forests and fisheries and prevent debacles like the collapse of fisheries on both coasts -
that is, of the United States -
and the artificial dichotomy between "jobs vs. the environment" in the Pacific Northwest.
The same applies to Australia obviously. Let me continue:
Damages to natural capital stock caused by pollution would be taxed, thus encouraging the development of low- or zero-pollution industrial technology and processes and a closed loop industrial system.
Since the natural capital depletion tax would be applied mainly at the "front end" of the economy, the tax would be passed through the entire system and affect the prices of all goods and services that consumed natural capital, either directly or indirectly. This would encourage the development of products that do not consume natural capital, which would then have a competitive edge in the marketplace and would tend to displace their non-sustainable alternatives. The tax
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