Australian energy policy: getting the balance 'right'

Trump's team talk about 'border tax adjustments' as part of his tax reforms.

WTO-compliant 'border tax adjustments' deliver trade competitiveness neutrality. And they're already here.

Hiding in plain view has been the value-added tax (VAT), or GST, to use the Australian label. Such tax design, using consumption-based emissions pricing, can do the job.

3. Letting technology leaders lead with 'no regrets' on trade competitiveness

We should encourage the march of technical progress. I hope Trump would agree.

Time, as well as policy not getting in the way, is needed to drive emissions and costs down while restoring reliability. The worst thing we can do is have a policy that politicians fight over, generating policy uncertainty, 'sovereign risk', and investment uncertainty.

I can't talk for the USA, but that's what we have, right here, right now. We are delivering 'the worst thing we can do' in Australia. It's a big 'own goal'.

4. Application of 'a better deal' comprehensively, not just to the USA

This stuff is not just for the USA. If it appeals to Trump, he can't oppose its application globally.

5. 'A better deal' must be a genuinely global deal: Australia 'going it alone' is ineffective at best

To argue that, unless we act (1.4% of global emissions), the Great Barrier Reef will die and the Opera House will be drowned is ridiculous. Australia should not cut off its economic nose to spite its employment face.

Assumingthere is a global warming problem, it needs a global solution. I hope Trump would agree.