Kiwis of a certain age will remember Claytons as a risible attempt to pass off an inferior substitute as the real deal. Some marketing genuis came up with the idea of selling soft drink to boozers using the classic punch line: “Claytons, the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”. Pretty soon people were attaching the Claytons brand to anything that didn’t quite measure up, and I guess it was about then that the product was withdrawn (though Wikipedia says the Aussies were still buying it as recently as 2007).
Clayton of the week last week was surely the ETS announcement…
There were two big changes, both of which will lead to more emissions and higher bills for taxpayers. First, industry pays for half of its emissions (until 2013 at this point but with strong hints of further Claytoning down the track). The taxpayer will be charged for the other half.
Second, the “changes in allocation support for trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industry will encourage increased efficiency without penalising production increases.” Translation: expand as much as you want, and you’ll pay no more provided your average emissions per unit of output don’t increase. Again, the kind taxpayer will pick up the tab.
So, here’s cheers to the Claytons ETS.
