They used to send convicts there - where is the change?

Norfolk Island is a funny place. My aunt lives there. A small speck of rock inhabited by the rich, convict decendents and a large number of former Pictcairmers, descendents of the Bounty mutineers.

Well I hope that their mutinous genes have not deserted them given the social experiment that is about to be practicesed upon them.

This is the personal Carbon Credit scheme dreamed up by some totalitarian nutjob named Gary Eggers at Southern Cross university and funded by the Australian Government.

This scheme is the biogots dream, as the Prof says,

"The way the system will work is basically it will involve giving everyone on the island a carbon card, like a credit or debit card, and they will get carbon units on that card. Then every time they go and pay for their petrol or their power - and from the second year their food - it will not only be paid for in money but it will also come off the carbon units that they are given for free at the start of the program.


"If they're frugal and don't buy a lot of petrol or power or fatty foods, then they can actually have units to spare at the end of a set time period so that they can cash those in at the bank and make money from them.

Ok Professor, and what happens if they fail to comply with your ordrers?

"If they aren't frugal and they are very wasteful and they produce a lot of carbon and consume unhealthy foods then every year they will have to buy extra units. Also over time - as we target lower carbon emissions and increasing health goals - the number of carbon units they are given will go down and therefore the price for the individual will go up to sustain that lifestyle they are not prepared to forego.

So let me get this straight. I buy stuff. And pay for it (and the sales taxes). But if you, or the scheme's devisers think I shouldn't I have to pay for it again.

Who decides what is and isn't good or right for me? I do. Not you, not the Government, not some cabal of alamist morons. Period.
Here is a question and answer with the alaromcrat Eggers,

Me: What happens to those people who overdraw their carbon emissions ...

Egger: In the first year you are just warned ... (Later) if you overspend, you’ve got to buy the units that are cashed in ...

Me: If you put this in on the mainland and you were really strict about it - you really thought the world was warming very, very dangerously and someone exceeded their rations of these carbon units - one would presume that you would make food, for example, too expensive for them to buy.

Egger: That’s right ... so if you’ve got, for example, a very fatty unhealthy food that is imported from overseas which takes a lot of carbon to develop it, then the price would go up ...

Me: What happens to a very fat family, a very irresponsibly fat family, and they’ve blown their carbon budget to the scheissenhausen and you’ve made their food terribly expensive? What about the kids? They go to breakfast and they’ve got one baked bean?

Egger: In general you’ll find that in a very fat family they are low-income earners ... so those people would actually benefit from a scheme like this because the food that they buy, the energy that they use, they don’t use as much energy as the rich anyway ...

Me: But what happens? Their ration of carbon credits runs out and you’ve made food too expensive for them to buy. What happens to them?

Egger: Again, they get money back from doing the right thing.

Me: No, but they’ve done the wrong thing. That’s why they are fat and poor. They’ve done the wrong thing, they’ve run out of their carbon credits. What are you going to do to them then, when the food’s too expensive to buy?

Egger: There are going to be personal cases like this that need to be worked out and they need to be worked out in the tax system as well as in the carbon credits system.

Oh God, I'm feeling all Godwin.

Aunt, Aunt, get off the island.