Clive Palmer puts gov in impossible position - more demands :)

Although Abbott is trying to put a brave face on underneath the eggs still there from the week claiming it's "situation normal", it's become apparent now that the dust has settled that Clive hasn't finished with Tone yet on this issue. He has not only stabbed the Lieberals in the guts (metaphorically) by humiliating them in front of the entire nation last week when he voted against the only promise that this gov would've kept so far since the election; their precious and hallowed carbon tax repeal bill, but shortly after he twisted the knife. I'm starting to think that maybe their's a bit of Clive payback going on here?

Anyway, so the gov is in a huge flap, desperately going about in damage control, to make it look to the electorate that they're actually a can do gov that won't let some prissy little senate get in the way of their mission from god. Never mind that it's the only thing they'd have done that they said they were going to do before the election. Now the gov reckons it'll get the repeal bill going on Monday and it'll be done through the week again. After all their policies are the right ones you know, and the senate will come around in the end and see their position. This is a new understanding of "negotiation" that I've not heard of :s

Well Clive has thrown a massive great spanner in the works. Not only does he want the savings passed on from energy companies, but every company across Australia. Diabolical yes. Take a big supermarket chain, and all the goods they sell. Clive wants them to go through and calculate for each item how much the carbon tax added to it, and pass that saving on to the consumer. Can you imagine the red tape? The cost to business? They would in effect be being asked to unravel the carbon tax.

The government agreed to Mr Palmer’s demands for strict reporting requirements and heavy additional penalties for businesses which do not pass on price reductions. But it believed these would apply only to power and gas providers. 

However, late on Thursday, Palmer United Party senator Dio Wang confirmed to The Australian Financial Review that the demands would apply to “all suppliers” of goods or services to consumers, including supermarkets and airlines. 

However, Senator Wang’s view was at odds with a statement from Mr Palmer on Thursday night when he said his demands would just apply to the energy sector. 

Companies such as Coles, Woolworths and Qantas Airways contend they absorbed the impact of the carbon tax in the first place, therefore there is nothing to pass back to consumers. 

Mr Palmer’s party’s new demands pose a potential red tape nightmare for business. They require suppliers to produce a statement within 30 days to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on how the carbon tax repeal affected their costs and how that was being reflected in prices. 

Energy companies that fail to pass on savings face fines of 250 per cent of those savings. The penalties would apply whether the offence was deliberate or inadvertent. more

Indeed, once the Goods and Services Tax was introduced by Howard, Labor had the sense in opposition not to promise to axe it. Trying to unravel the thing once it's settled into the economy would be nigh on impossible.

Which is where Clive has put Tone now. If he wants to pass the carbon tax repeal bill, he'll have to have the whole thing unraveled. Nigh on impossible. 

And to have such a thing implemented by business, it would have to be passed no later than by this Friday. Nigh on impossible. 

Well done Clive. Brilliant move :)