Carbon Tax Targets Western Australia, Says Opposition Party

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

15 August 2011

The Australian opposition Liberal Party has taken the opportunity once again to criticize the country’s mining and carbon taxes by accusing the federal government of potentially damaging the prosperity of Western Australia.

In a speech to the West Australian Liberal Party Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition, said that the two taxes were specifically targeted at Western Australia, explaining that the mining tax targets the west’s iron ore industry.

“Bad taxes are bad for everyone but these bad taxes fall harder on the west than anywhere else and they show how totally out of touch the Labor Party is with the real interests of our country’s most dynamic state.”

“When it comes to the mining tax, when it comes to the carbon tax, we will oppose them in Opposition and we will rescind them in government,” Abbott said.

“The carbon tax is a bad tax based on a lie. All of us should remember the phrase; ‘there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,’ and every moment we get we should repeat that phrase because that is the phrase that will haunt this Prime Minister and this government to its political death. No government can say one thing, clearly, categorically with all forethought before an election and do the opposite after an election. No government can retain democratic legitimacy when it does that and that is why I say there should be no carbon tax collection without an election.”

He was keen to throw doubt on the benefits of the carbon tax saying that the Government’s own modelling showed that more than three million Australian families would be worse off under this tax.

He also said that the tax was not going to work because according to the government’s own figures carbon emissions would go from 578m tonnes a year to 621m tonnes a year, and that in order to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050, 400m tonnes of carbon credits would have to be purchased from foreign traders.

“Over the last 15 years, without a carbon tax, without an emissions trading scheme, our emissions intensity has reduced by almost 50 per cent – and that’s happened because sensible Australian businesses have tried to cut their costs, they’ve tried to reduce their fuel bill, they’ve tried to reduce their power bills," Abbott claimed.

“So, there are any number of intelligent ways to reduce our emissions which don’t involve a great big new tax on everything and don’t involve a big hit on Australian jobs and don’t involve a big hit on Australians' cost of living – and that is the sort of policy that we want to see flourish in this country.”

Australia's carbon levy will be set at AUD23 (USD24.5) per tonne of pollution beginning July 1, 2012. This is to rise by 2.5% a year in real terms during a three-year fixed price period until July 1, 2015. The carbon price mechanism will then transition to an emissions trading scheme where the price will be determined by the market.

Around 500 businesses will be required to pay for their pollution under the carbon pricing mechanism, with more than half of this revenue used to assist households with tax cuts, increased family payments and higher pensions, benefits and allowances. Carbon price revenue will also be used to support jobs and to invest in clean energy and climate change programs.

Recommended