Don’t bother us now, we are busy fighting for a pay rise for….Erm….Well us.

Cornered on the fact that he wants to destroy the coal industry, Brown tried a denial. Then Uhlmann read out quotes from Brown: “Australia must urgently kick the coal habit” and the government must “commit to a plan to phase out coal exports”. Brown smoothly changed tack.

Brown: “Sorry Chris, but Treasury has no intention of shutting the (coal) industry down.”

Uhlmann: “No, but you do.”

Brown: “No, I’m not … “

Uhlmann: “Didn’t you say, in 2007, that we have to ‘kick the coal habit’?”

Brown: “No, I did not. You’re looking at the Murdoch press where I said back in 2007 we should look at coal exports with a view to phasing them out down the line.”

Uhlmann: “It wasn’t the Murdoch press, it was a comment piece you wrote. So you want to phase out the coal industry?”

Brown: “The world is going to do that because it is causing massive economic damage through the impact of climate change.”

Uhlmann: “But the simple question is, how would you replace the $50 million a year in export income that comes by way of coal, an industry that you’d shut down?”

Brown: “You go to renewables.”

What Brown didn’t say, but which his offsiders revealed this week, is the crippling cost of replacing coal.

These are the people with whom Julia Gillard has chosen to share power.

This is easy for The Greens to say, forgetting the issue that the MP and Senators are earning good money, at least 4 of these are professionals.

Bob Brown – TAS – Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree. One way or another he will not get hurt by a Carbon Tax.

Richard Di Natale – Vic – Masters in Public Health, a Masters in Health Sciences and is a Fellow of the Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine. – Well he isn’t going to be hurt with a Carbon Tax either.

Penny Wright – SA – She spent 20 years working as a lawyer. – No problem dealing with a Carbon Tax

Larissa Waters – Qld – Waters works as an Environmental Lawyer in a private firm – another Lawyer who will not be particularly affected by the Carbon Tax.

Adam Bandt – Vic – Prior to his election to parliament, Bandt was an industrial, labor relations and public interest lawyer living in Parkville. He was a partner at Slater and Gordon and is currently completing his PhD in law and politics from Monash University. His PhD thesis was “Work to Rule: Rethinking Marx, Pashukanis and Law”. [3] At Murdoch University, Bandt was a student activist and member of the Left Alliance. At that time he has been quoted as calling the Greens a “bourgeois” party. – He wouldn’t notice the Carbon Tax and recognises it will help to kill off the Middle Income class of people.

These Upper class Greens that insist on hitting us hard with a Carbon Tax can afford to say this, they are not the ones that will be hurt by it. This is the case for many of those that support this tax, most on good upper income wages. They do not care that the Middle income earners will be in a world of pain and IF the lower income earners really do receive compensation they will not be compensated for the increase in prices as the cost of living raises across the board.

Since writing this article we now hear http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-24/politician-pay-increase-outrageous/1441118 and http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/politician-pay-rise-could-attract-more-women/story-e6frf7jx-1226156852677

They claim :HIGHER pay for politicians could attract more talented people and more women to run for Parliament, a Federal Labor backbencher says.   Backbench salaries are tipped to almost double to $250,000 following a review by the independent Federal Remuneration Tribunal.   It is expected to recommend MPs trade their current generous allowances for increases in base salaries.   The pay packets of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, her ministers and also shadow ministers could be a whole lot fatter.   Ms Gillard, who now earns $366,366 annually, could get as much as $650,000 under any new system, while Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s salary could go up from $260,000 to almost $480,000.This is all about paying themselves more to negate the impact of the Carbon Tax, while having a feast on our increased taxation.  The best politicians are those that come to the job to make a difference, those that are only tempted due to the money, will get us the Gillard’s, Oakeshott’s Windsors, Combet’s, Conroy’s, and the Thomson’s and the Shorten’s of this world.

The Greens will quietly protest unless the Coalition join with them and make sure NO payrise is voted on until the threat of the Global Recession is over.