Wednesday 2 November 2011

Australia and Canada Compared

Several Coalition members have been making a point that Canada does not have a country wide carbon price and Australia soon will. Deputy Liberal Leader Bishop made the point in question time today.

Before they follow on with that comparison, the Libs might want to note the other critical comparisons between Australia and Canada.

Unemployment rate: Australia 5.2%; Canada 7.1%
Public debt: Australia 7% of GDP; Canada 32% of GDP
Per capita GDP Australia US$55,672; Canada US$46,303

Enough said.

3 comments:

  1. Plus, Canada: Conservative PM in thrall to the Fossil Fuel Industry;
    Australia: Progressive Labor government who believes in the Science of Global Warming & has the guts to defy the Fossil Fuel Industry campaign to torpedo action.

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  2. Irrespective of what you think is the reason for the difference in policy, it's stupid to act when other countries are not acting. Does your "Enough said" mean we need to wait until Canada and the US have reduced their UnN rates to 5% - and China and India have increased their GDP per capita to $US55,000 - before we can expect them to introduce a carbon price? Hmm, I suspect we will be waiting a long time. So why should we introduce a carbon tax now?

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  3. The parallel between the Canadian and Australian economies and property markets is unnerving.

    Actually, substitute 'Canada' with 'Australia', or 'Vancouver' with 'Sydney', and any housing market article would be just as accurate. The housing sectors in both Canada and Australia are ultimately doomed. The party's over.

    Here in Australia vendors are removing their overvalued houses from the market and leasing them instead, because nothing is selling, at least not for the ridiculous prices the owners expect, and auction clearance results have dropped to dangerously low levels ( see Australian Auction Results ). Australian and Canada have both been running Ponzi schemes with our housing assets.

    This is ultimately very damaging for our future, and totally unsustainable, when each spare dollar of disposable income is wasted on overvalued homes and excessive debt, while young families battle to find affordable shelter and speculators hoard the real estate stock!

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