Mike's Minute: The madness of the carbon auction needs to end

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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4d ago 1:55

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It's the definition of madness. And stupidity.

How many times do you have to do the same dumb thing with no result, thus proving your system doesn’t work, before you admit your system doesn’t work and give up?

The last of the carbon auctions was held this week. You know where this story is going.

I first got interested in this a couple of years ago when it struck me that this auction malarkey might be one of the better examples of the sheer, ideological madness that drives so much of the climate policy.

One of the reasons so many people have got into forestry is it's free money.

It's on land and land, generally, is a good investment and free money isn't a bad deal either.

Also, after a while, they might pay you some good dough for your wood.

So if trees get carbon credits why would you turn up to an auction? You wouldn’t, and indeed this week they didn’t.

Not one person. Not one bid. Not one credit sold.

There are four of these each year for the past two years. No one has bought a thing. Ask yourself why.

They have tried to price the units, to no avail, but what is really causing the issue is the Government.

To buy something you must believe it has value. It has to have worth.

Why would you buy into the Government carbon narrative when they keep changing the rules?

This Government is doing their best to do as little as possible to meet their climate emissions. I applaud that because it’s the right thing to do.

But given the rules keep changing I'm certainly not turning up to buy stuff like a credit I may not need.

The minister, as I told you the other day, took the unprecedented step of offering commentary about the auction and telling us how committed the Government is to climate in the hope we would go "well that’s OK then, see you at the auction".

It didn’t work.

The auction didn’t work, again. Eight down and zero sales, no revenue.

How long before they pull the pin on a gargantuan embarrassment?

The longer this goes the more foolish they look.

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