More Crap from the uninformed

[Witchdoctor]

From The Sunday Mail 25/2/07
Queensland Greens environment spokeswoman Larissa Waters said the Government should introduce an environment levy on big vehicles.
" Only ignorant people drive 4WD's," she said.

Possibly we could send her our thoughts on this subject.

[e-mail]

Davo

[terravistawombat]

Yeah,
This sort of stupidity should be attacked. I sent her the following :
I have two four wheel drives, one a 1.6 litre 4 cylinder Suzuki with excellent fuel
consumption, and one a 2.8 litre turbo diesel Isuzu, also excellent fuel consumption, but
based on your theory, I must be doubly ignorant.
Based on this assumed ignorance, I think I could probably get away with calling you a
stupid, cud sucking cow, but as I was obviously brought up with a higher level of respect
for fellow citizens, than you were, I wouldn't try and insult you by say anything like
that.
I would suggest you concentrate on your alleged list of concerns like "urban water,
public transport, climate change and sustainable economic and urban development" for
which you may have some knowledge.
I would also find it interesting whether you hand write your submissions and use Australia
Post in thier fuel guzzling delivery trucks, use energy wasting computers, printers, and
electronic mail, or do an environmental friendly method like semaphore flags (not made of
dyed cloth or paper)

[geeves]

Thats a bit over the top. Vegatable dyes are perfectly ok.
seriously the whole world is going through this where greenies are flexing the mussels and reading the wrong reasearch. The only real research on the polution from 4wds has been done in USA where and average 4wd could happily swallow one of our massive trucks in its boot. They never check this research with the local norm.

A quote from her web site taken out of context of course
"As one of a team of environmentalists working on the vegetation clearing campaign "

[terravistawombat]

I received this response from Larissa Waters (such a nice person)

Dear Ian,

You are right to take offence at yesterday's Sunday Mail article. However,
your anger should be directed to the paper for deliberately mis-quoting me,
and putting words in my mouth. The Queensland Greens have not called for a
"tax hike" on 4WDs, nor have I ever called any driver "ignorant". This
is
the second time in two weeks that a News Limited paper has deliberately
misled the public about the Queensland Greens' policies.

The text below is what I have sent to the Editor in response to the article:


I did not call four wheel drivers "ignorant", nor have the Queensland Greens
called for a "tax hike on 4WDs" as reported in the Sunday Mail on page 25,
25th February 2007. I said that people may not always think about the
environmental impacts of their everyday lives, but that all of our choices
do make a difference. The Queensland Greens policy is to give incentives to
people who opt to drive smaller, alternative fuel or hybrid cars, as well as
to encourage people to use public transport where possible. We ask all
drivers, in both big and small cars, to do their bit for the climate by
thinking about whether there are other transport options open to them for
each trip they take.


I hope this clarifies the position of the Queensland Greens for you. All of
our policies are on our website www.qld.greens.org.au/policies, and if you
have any further queries about them please do not hesitate to contact Ian
Gittus on [e-mail].

Regards,

Larissa Waters

B.Sc (Envt), LLB (Hons), Grad Dip (LP), Solicitor

Queensland Greens Spokesperson for the Environment and the Legal System

North Brisbane Branch Convenor

[geeves]

The true position is actualy quite reasonable.
In reality its hard to justify big vehicles in private ownership but how do you discourage unnecessary ownership. Would a levy on anual rego for vehicles over 3500kg kerb weight work or would it discriminate against those owners of campervans that only get driven once or twice a year. The only fair way would be just impose an extra tax on fuel. This way the ecconomical driver gets rewarded where the boy race pays his just dues and the occasional driver of a big camper doesnt get too hard. Of course this easy answer will never happen because whatever government brings it in will not be in government at the next few elections. Too many people would say we pay enough tax now.

[Bruce]

You sure got everyone going on this Davo, just reading replies on ExplorOz. Poor girls doing a lot of apologising, great stuff mate, maybe they will get the bloody news papers to.
Cheers Bruce

[Rachel]

4x4 owners have been getting alot of slack recently, but it is good to see f1 drivers are doing there bit www.stuff.co.nz/3975057a13298.html
yeah right