At dinner parties, we are taught not to talk politics, religion, or sport. After a few glasses of good red wine, the last thing you want at the dinner table is a bit of a biffo. Being quite apolitical at the moment due to the recent behaviour of politicians of all persuasions, it is probably allowable to talk politics on a multi-partisan basis. Of course, the carbon tax has been a huge political issue for a decade and has brought down a number of leaders in major parties. Rudd, Gillard, H
oward, Turnbull.
As Russell Zimmerman pointed out on radio and TV yesterday, the retail industry almost to a person, supported the scrapping. More money in people’s pockets means more money in our cash registers.
But the game isn’t over, with a carbon emission scheme on the horizon, and who knows what that will bring.
As Zimmerman says, the word ‘tax’ means uncertainty. Maybe the word ‘scheme’ will ease the pain. We could look forward to an income scheme rather than income tax. Or a GSS rather than a GST.
The whole dirty saga of the past 10 years riddled with lies and deception has finally been brought to an end thanks to Prime Minister Palmer. Yes – you read correctly. Let’s be fair dinkum. Portly Clive is pulling the strings and is de facto running the place.
Where does this leave climate change? Well, here is another clanger. While as areligious as I am apolitical, highly respected and devout colleagues assure me that there is no such thing as climate change. The world has apparently gone through these phases ad infinitum and rather than warming, we are currently cooling. One big volcanic eruption negates a whole lot of tax.
Which brings us to sport. Well, Wimbledon is over, as is the World Cup. The retail sales in the case of the latter were disappointing. When will some retailers learn that anything date stamped is extremely high risk?
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702.
