The two important columns are the “Total assistance” and “Average cost of living impact.”

The “Total assistance” column details the increased benefits paid by the government to individuals to help cope with the increased costs of an ETS. In reality what this also equates to is the extra cost to the taxpayer - you.

And the “Average cost of living impact” column details the increased cost to the consumer.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s theft from the individual on a grand scale. Because remember, it’s not businesses that pay for this, it’s always the individual. You’ll pay for this through increased taxes plus increased prices.

While I’m on the subject, a quick update for you on our Climate Change education…

Based on what we’ve read so far on Climate Change, all roads lead back to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). All other research is based on the findings of the IPCC. Therefore, if the IPCC have got it wrong, then all the other research its findings are based on is completely useless.

Which rather puts a hole in the argument about there being millions of scientists who have researched Climate Change and found it to be a problem.

Because they haven’t, they’ve merely created models based on inputs supplied by the IPCC, and then added in their own scenarios to spit out the results.

So, the IPCC reports are the next port of call on our Climate Change/Stable Climate education.

But you only have to look at the horse trading over the ETS between the crooks in government and the crooks aiding and abetting them in the Opposition.

We simply ask the following question: If Climate Change is so important that something must be done about it, why is the government allowing the biggest emitters of CO2 and pollutants to get off virtually scot free?

We can answer that question ourselves. It’s because the Climate Change argument is all about a massive tax grab and power grab. It’s got nothing to do with ’saving’ the environment.

Unfortunately, the ‘Stable Climate’ deniers can’t see this because they’ve taken a massive dose of ‘Climate Change Rohypnol.’ They’re drugged up to the eyeballs on Climate Change spin.

Unfortunately for them, after the drug wears off they’re likely to wake up in ten years to find they and their wallets have been severely violated. Trouble is, it won’t just be them that will have felt the pain, everyone will have.

But, as I say, that’s on the table for tomorrow. Today we’re looking at gold priced in Australian dollars. Although it’s not just gold, but silver that’s making some headway too.

One of the frequent comments I get from readers is that the price of gold in Australian dollars has actually fallen in the last few months even though the US dollar price has risen.

You can see that on the chart below:

The Aussie dollar gold price reached a peak of around $1,550 in February this year before sliding to below $1,150 in the space of six months.

You could reasonably argue that in Australian dollar terms the price of gold crashed this year.

The simple reason for the ‘crash’ is due to the ever decreasing value of the US dollar. As you can see on the chart below the Australian dollar has climbed from 63 cents in March to 93 cents today, a near 50% increase:

It has been this ‘crash’ in the price of US dollars that has caused the Aussie dollar price of gold to fall.

The point is whether now is a good time to buy gold? I mean, as Money Morning reader Peter wrote to us yesterday:

“How do we know that “GOLD” being a safe asset is not in a bubble?”

That’s a pretty good question. And of course we can’t be 100% certain that it isn’t in a bubble. Although I’m 99.99% (gold bugs will like that reference!) certain that it isn’t.

But let me put it this way, if someone asked me which would be the best asset class to buy and hold over the next 30 years, my answer would be precious metals.

Rather, share investors should be active with their portfolios taking advantage of high prices to sell and cheap prices to buy. It doesn’t mean you have to be a day trader, it just means taking more responsibility over your investments rather than letting the fund managers cream you.

And as for property, well, it goes without saying that property is in a monumental bubble caused by rampant government and central bank manipulation - invest in property at your peril!

As a long term buy, hold and ‘forget-about’ investment, gold - and silver - wins hands down.