It's Official! Abbott's price on soil carbon $0!

Tony Abbott plans to nationalise the carbon credits farmers could earn for storing carbon in soils in the same way the Howard Government nationalised the carbon that farmers were forced to store by the native vegetation laws. "Tony wants farmers to help the government meet its 2020 target for free," says Michael Kiely from the Carbon Farming & Trading Association. At a public forum in Tamworth a farmer asked Tony what the deal would be for soil carbon. He must have been astonished to hear Tony say that not all landholders are motivated by financial incentives. "A lot of people are doing it without any payment from government," he said. Maybe, but only people with significant off-farm income. "I was on Jock Laurie's property near Walcha," says Tony. "Jock is increasing the carbon content of his soil and again he's doing it because he thinks it's worth doing without any additional incentive from government." Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce stood by while Tony Abbott gave his answer to the question: Can farmers get a square deal from the Opposition? Tony Abbott: "So we're going to go to the market and we're going to spend as little as we need to to get the result we want." Can the price get lower than $0?