Anti-Carbon Tax Ad Campaign Launched In Australia

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

22 July 2011

Australia's largest business organization, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), is taking the concerns of business and ACCI's member organizations about the proposed carbon tax to the community through support of an advertising campaign by the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance (ATI).

ATI, formed by business groups across the economy including the Coal Association and the Minerals Council, intends to communicate information about the impact of the proposed carbon tax on industry and jobs.

The Australian mining industry had a similar advertising spend last year promoting a message against the resources tax.

ACCI's Chief Executive Peter Anderson said:

"With the carbon tax debate entering a phase where Members of Parliament will be required to vote, the views of business need to be clearly expressed and understood by the community and its representatives."

"Embedding an economy wide carbon price into the costs of doing business when comparable action is not being taken by Australia's competitor nations is a flawed approach to climate policy that risks jobs and is unfair to small business."

"ACCI acknowledges efforts by the government to provide compensation to households and some industry, but going alone as a nation means carbon tax pain for no climate gain."

"This is the message of the advertising, which reflects the strong and overwhelming sentiment of the business sector. Our goal is to inform the community, secure an open minded debate and reconsideration of the issue by the Parliament."

When asked for a response to the advertising campaign, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard said:

“There are many businesses in this country that are embracing the possibilities that come from a clean energy future and have welcomed the government’s plans to put a price on carbon.”

“There are many businesses in this country that have been anxious about investing, they simply didn’t know what the rules of the game were going to be and now they know what the rules of the game are going to be because we’ve announced our carbon pricing plan.”

“And then of course there are businesses like the businesses in the steel industry and zinc that have said they are able to work with the government’s carbon pricing plan.”

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