RIGHT OF REPLY: Carbon Tax Bill: Correcting a distortion By Yunus Carrim
I have never spoken to Ms Rodel in my life and I had a fleeting exchange with Ms Garcin about a submission their organisation, African Climate Reality Project , made on the Carbon Tax Bill.
So there I was, in a rushed call to her while driving through congested traffic on my way to Parliament, speaking without the rigour and precision I would have, were I chairing a meeting, like almost all people in that situation; and I certainly cannot recall exactly what I said, but I am very clear that to reduce our conversation to that “quote” from me above is just so crude and so wrong.
Parliament’s Legal Services Unit confirms that it was unethical in the context of the nature of our conversation for Ms Garcin to “quote” me, especially without checking with me. It violates the norms that apply to an exchange such as I had with Ms Garcin on 6 February. But in the case of the Carbon Tax Bill the NGOs were much weaker in terms of numbers and quality of engagement, and I many times said in the meetings that it was disappointing that the NGOs were not more active on this bill, as Ms Garcin herself acknowledges. And while we have to do right, whatever the performance of the NGOs, it may partly be that the final balances we arrived at in that stage in the processing of carbon tax issues are also a reflection of the ACRP’s weaknesses.
Ms Garcin and Ms Rodel say that there needs to be an effective carbon tax in the interests of people generally, “particularly the workers and the poor”. Agreed. But are they implying that Cosatu’s approach to the Carbon Tax Bill goes against the interests of their worker members and the poor? This entanglement followed an eight-year process of consultation with stakeholders by the National Treasury and the Department of Environmental Affairs.In brief, we initially process a draft bill through having public hearings and subsequent deliberations on it, constantly engaging with public stakeholders, and when we have finalised a bill it is sent to the minister, who then usually introduces the bill with the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in October each year.
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