Baz, not sure what you think the ETS is all about, but it's not a tax in the normal sense of the word. You won't be paying it, and it's completely separate from income tax or GST. Ultimately costs will be passed on to consumers by the companies that do pay for emitting CO2, I expect, which won't all be cancelled out by the government rebate to taxpayers.
The ETS has been so messed up recently that it bears little relation to that originally proposed and gives CO2 emitters too many outs. Ross Garneaut is very critical of the modified labor version, but not as critical as he is of the socialist-styled taxpayer pays system proposed by the liberals.
The libs system is a true tax approach, based on distributing income tax directly to some selected businesses that offset CO2 emissions.
