Carbon Offset Madness: The Tax No One Voted For

By The Fair Go Movement | July 2025

“No one voted for a system that taxes aged care homes to ‘offset’ carbon on bare paddocks. But here we are.”

An aged care provider recently received a $9 million government grant to build essential housing in a rural community. But before the first slab was poured, they were forced to pay $3.5 million in carbon offset costs. Why? Because a bureaucrat in a planning department deemed the flat, mostly treeless land as ‘carbon absorbing.’

This wasn’t an ancient forest. It wasn’t a conservation area. It was a paddock. Yet our bureaucratic system—under the guise of carbon policy—stripped almost 40% of that housing budget to buy ‘offsets’ on paper, while vulnerable Australians still wait for housing that hasn’t been built.

The Rise of a Green Bureaucracy

Carbon offset schemes in Australia are no longer about protecting the environment—they’ve become a lucrative industry of consultants, assessors, and intermediaries who profit from applying phantom carbon values to land and charging real money to erase them.

• Most offsets don’t remove any actual emissions
• There’s no requirement for measurable environmental benefit
• Rural and regional projects are disproportionately affected
• The biggest polluters still get a free pass

This is not climate action—it’s economic punishment disguised as policy.

A System With No Vote, No Voice, No Oversight

Australians never voted for this system. It wasn’t part of a national referendum or serious public debate. It was introduced incrementally through obscure regulations, industry guidelines, and state-based planning overlays. Now, it’s silently draining public and private funds under the name of climate virtue.

And who gains? Private carbon brokers. Land bankers. Speculators. Not the communities doing the building—and certainly not the elderly and vulnerable Australians who were promised care and housing.

What We Need: An Immediate Audit

The Fair Go Movement is calling for a full independent audit into carbon offset practices in Australia. This must include:

1. Transparency in offset pricing and methodology
2. Public disclosure of all government-linked offset transactions
3. A moratorium on applying offsets to aged care and social infrastructure developments
4. Pathways for refund or exemption where no true environmental loss exists

We’re not against environmental stewardship. But this isn’t stewardship—it’s extortion. And the people paying the price are the ones doing the work to build a fairer country.

Published by The Fair Go Movement. All rights reserved.