I would not be prepared to pay additional taxation along the lines suggested
below - as far as I am concerned I already pay
too much supporting a lot of other people through our taxation system when they
should be supporting themselves. Soapbox
time: "People should help themselves" principle, and I believe that includes
farmers who can undertake conservation
voluntarily simply because it would help them anyway. Eg I understand that
having trees helps to reduce soil erosion through
winds and water washaway (witness the tree plantings in the Capertee Valley to
help Regent Honeyeaters), and having the type
of habitat attracts the right type of birds to eat insects which might
otherwise destroy a crop. Note the owl nest box
efforts in sugar farming areas where the owls then eat the rats that otherwise
adversely impact the sugar.
The main reason behind my objection is that the whole scheme would be too
"general" with the money going into some pool, then
people have to "administer" it, hence swallowing up some of the money and
reducing the amount that goes eventually to the
purpose intended.
Additionally, I have little faith in our government system that the money would
not be "redirected" to some other
non-conservation cause. From memory, some of the money from the Telstra sale
was redirected, even though it was all supposed
to go to the national heritage fund. Even if the government did direct the
money to "conservation", then you need people to
decide the definition of conservation projects - more admin and hence less
money ending up where it's supposed to be used.
I far prefer to donate monies directly to and for specific purposes (and
time/volunteer effort), where I have more belief
that the money will be used for the intended/stated purpose and that
conservation will more directly benefit.
Irene Denton
Sydney, NSW
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Richard Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, 28 March 2000 5:14
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] conservation lands
would you be
prepared to pay a levy through the taxation system, along the lines of
the Medicare levy, to assist farmers and graziers to manage a
significant part of their properties for conservation purposes? How does
an extra 0.5 % sound?
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
in the message body (without the quotes)
|
