Cory and CATO sitting in a tree, m-i-s-leading ye?

I just read an article about Cory Bernardi’s role in faux grass roots websites that are against putting a price on carbon – “Bernardi busy behind ‘grassroots’ anti-carbon tax movement“.  It made me wonder if perhaps Cory is also behind CATO, that dubious ‘grass routes’ association of “taxpayers and consumers” who are throwing an online and real-world hissy fit over the current government’s carbon pricing policy.  I posted about them over a month ago.

Update: Daniel Piotrowski of The Punch alerted me to an article he wrote back in August that delves a little deeper into CATA’s origins.

The Consumers and Taxpayers Association (CATA) should really be called the No Carbon Tax Association.

I just read an article about a protest at the offices of the Minister for Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese.  The rally was in response to Anthony Albanese’s recent comments that the ‘convoy of no-confidence’ was actually a ‘convoy of no-consequence’.  I personally think it was a nice play on words but it seems some people took it a little personally.  It seems that what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander.

What I’m really interested in here though is just who is organising all these anti carbon price rallies.  And no, the proposed policy is not a ‘carbon tax’, it’s trading scheme with beginning with a fixed price.

The National Road Freighters Association was behind the recent Canberra truck rally.  An organisition called “The Consumers and Taxpayers Association (CATA)” is behind the more recent rally outside Minister Albanese’s office.  I thought I’d take a look at CATA’s website.  Their website says:

Cata examines government policy, legislation and program delivery to ensure that taxpayers receive value for money for their representation.

Despite this lofty and noble statement, their website contains little ‘examination’ of any policy.  Two other statements on their website also caught my attention:

CATA strives to inform consumers and taxpayers of their rights to reject policies that erode their cost of living.

CATA strives to inform the Australian public when Government policy fails and is costly.

I found these statements particularly curious since, despite having very broad and basic policy positions on Education, Health, Community, Security, Small Business, Climate Change, Infrastructure and Mining Tax, their website address is www.nocarbontaxrally.com.  I was particularly intrigued by their interest and staunch opposition to a price on carbon, given the modelled impacts of the price on carbon are minimal.  This was discussed recently in a recent blog post by my colleague, Rod.
I’m interested to know more about CATA but unfortunately the website doesn’t say much about management and just states:

CATA is not aligned to any political party nor is CATA operated by any other organisation or media. CATA is a group of everyday working Australians who believe in democracy and good government for consumers and taxpayers.

CATA has a distinctly Tea Party feel about it and it always concerns me when ‘everyday working Australian’ rally against sensible policies that they will barely notice.  It’s a distinctly Republican (US) tactic to use ‘freedom’ and the ‘common citizen’ to rally against policies that will actually be felt most by big business.  Maybe lobbying strategists are learning from the Americans.

P.S. If anybody from CATA reads this, you have a typo on the about page on your website.

Your welcome to contact us.