The Carbon Tax: What’s your take on it?
A step in the right direction? Just another tax disguised as an environmental issue? Is it really going to help the environment? Should we be focussing on other initiatives?
What is your take on the carbon tax?
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From SMH.com.au
JULIA GILLARD is fighting to regain public approval with a cautious carbon tax package and promises of tax cuts and higher family payments to ensure 6 million Australian households will be better off or fully compensated for its costs.
But another 2.7 million households earning as little as $65,000 will be out of pocket as 500 businesses paying the $23 a tonne tax pass on the cost.
With the parliamentary votes already lined up, the Prime Minister was claiming success yesterday in achieving the controversial economic reform that helped bring down her predecessor.
‘‘The carbon pollution reduction scheme ran into a brick wall. I’ve knocked that wall down. This is going through - full stop,’’ she said. ‘‘Now is the time to move from words to deeds.’‘
But the Coalition leader, Tony Abbott, promised to fight the unpopular policy in the arena of public opinion, saying it ‘‘sets up the next election to be a referendum on the carbon tax’‘. He again pledged an unspecified income tax cut without the pain of a carbon tax and promised to vote against the entire package - even the compensation for industry.
While Labor was emphasising its cautious approach, the Greens said the policy meant Australia had become a world leader.
The tax will rise by 5 per cent a year until 2015, when it becomes an emissions trading scheme with a greenhouse gas reduction target of at least 5 per cent.
The Greens leader, Bob Brown, predicted that target would become tougher after an inbuilt process of review, and hailed the increase in the 2050 emissions reduction target from 60 per cent to 80 per cent.
Compensation for the carbon tax, which will lift prices by 0.7 per cent or about $9.90 a week for the average family, will be delivered with two tax cuts for workers earning up to $80,000 a year. The first, worth about $300, will coincide with the introduction of the tax on July 1 next year. Family payments and pensions will also rise by 1.7 per cent.
Trade-exposed industries will get $9.2 billion over three years - 40 per cent of the total tax revenue - in free permits and grants to increase their energy efficiency. The highest emitting industries, such as cement and aluminium, will get 95 per cent free permits, as they were to under the Rudd government’s scheme. Manufacturers such as steel makers will get extra assistance.
Business groups including the Australian Industry Group, which represents manufacturers, expressed concern about the potential impact of the tax but the two big steel makers, BlueScope and OneSteel said the package was sensible and pragmatic.
As Mr Abbott prepared to take his anti-tax campaign to manufacturing regions struggling with the high dollar, Ms Gillard warned against blaming the carbon tax for other problems, saying it was ‘‘not the only wind of change in our economy’‘.
The government is spending $4.3 billion more than the tax will raise over its first four years, clawing back some of the overrun with cuts to diesel fuel rebates and aviation excise. Other savings will be detailed in midyear economic forecasts.
Fuel excise cuts for heavy trucks are one of three items not certain to be passed. The independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor oppose them. The Greens are still deciding whether to support coal and steel compensation but the government says this could be delivered without parliamentary approval through a grants program.
The Coalition is attacking the tax for allowing Australian companies to buy pollution permits overseas, rather than reducing their emissions. Treasury modelling predicts that of the 160 million tonnes of carbon cuts needed to meet the 5 per cent target for 2020, about 100 million tonnes will have been bought overseas.
According to the modelling, the new tax would shave 0.1 per cent a year from continued economic growth and have virtually no impact on overall job creation.
The package includes an independently run $10 billion clean energy finance corporation to co-invest in clean and renewable energy projects, and $5.5 billion for coal-fired electricity generators.
A new climate change authority, to advise on emission reduction targets, will be chaired by a former governor of the Reserve Bank, Bernie Fraser.
that hurt my head,
its just another tax, its not going to change anything not when we are still using the same fossil fuels. If they wanted a greener solution to help save the environment they should be spending more money on renewable resources.
Ultimately the Tax payer will end up footing the bill as utilites rates will increase as will everything else. i can already see woolies putting the price of bread and milk up haha
sukah - also part of the package was $10billion invested in renewable energy research and business. This should have been done in the Howard era but he chose to stick his head in the sand and panda to big businesses in fossil fuels which everyone knows is doomed!
I don’t think this tax specifically will help the environment, but it is a step in the right direction. We want/need businesses to start having to be considerate to the environment and I think there are already moves to making that part of best practice. This tax will help shove that along a bit.
I honestly can’t get over the fact that people are whinging about having to foot even a tiny bit of the bill for this?? 10 bucks a week is nothing and we shouldn’t even have to be compensated with a tax cut. Drink 2 less latte’s a week, don’t have a squillion dollar mortgage on a McMansion, buy a cheaper brand of loo paper, don’t have a ridiculous massive 4wd in the city and don’t spend $3000 on a Smart TV.
$10 a week is a tiny price to pay!
I love how everyone else blames the government and big business for the state of the environment!!!!!
It’s quite simple really….......... if ya are that concerned, then STOP watchin TV, usin ya computer, drivin a car etc etc…....... hell even give up snowboarding!!!!!
I think that it’s so hypocritical of the likes of Gillard (AKA Bob Brown) to front up to the “Big Polluters” after flyin in on a jet that holds half a dozen people, and tell the nation that we have to stop them from polluting the environment!!!!!
When it comes to the environment, you CAN’T have ya cake and eat it too!!!!!
What was her claim about 6 million households will be better off???? If we want to reduce the impact on the environment, then WE SHOULD ALL PAY!!!!!
I think that it is an absolute load of shit that’s designed to appease the Greens, and put the public into a false sense of hope that we are doing our part to save the planet!!!!! It is part of Human Nature to always want more!!!!! That’s how we got to this stage in the first place!!!!! And in doing so we are NOT going to stop the likes of China and India from polluting, and they have an almost valid argument in doing so!!!!! We had our turn at living the good life, and now they want their go!!!!!!
However bleak I may sound, that is unfortunately the reality of the situation IMHO!!!!!
yeah thats cool for some people cords what about people earning less than 50,000 a year, which is a lot of people, did you know Australia Since 2006, the notion that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” has gained increasing public and media attention. Often, different conclusions are reached depending on how poverty is measured. It is clear that Australia’s middle class is shrinking, and while the majority of those living in poverty are probably not becoming poorer in absolute terms, they are becoming more numerous. However, those in the bottom 5% of income earners in Australia have, in fact, become poorer over the past decade for a standard two/three bedroom house rental in sydney you are looking at 450 a week, yearly that is 23.400 half of you wage factor groceries, rising electrical bills, phone bills ect ect and you are not left with a hell of a lot of money. to you 10 a week may not be much money but to a lot of struggling families it is a hell of a lot of money. but i suppose little timmy can just go with out football,soccer registration this year, little samantha can go with out physical culture/ dancing lesson this year and mum and dad can go with out that much needed coffee break.
found this article, it is quite interesting in regards to the european carbon scheme…
to be honest, i think its a step in the right direction but im not sold on their plan yet. the article i linked explains a few of my concerns near the end
mate I’m well into that low income bracket, and I know what you mean…I just think that people can’t expect anything positive to happen without some sacrifices being made…and we all have to make them. You’ll be pleased to learn part of the package is that the tax-free threshold has been lifted from $6000 to $18,000 - a massive increase! I made under $14,000 last year and had enough money for rent, food, snowboarding in aus, 10 days snowboarding in NZ, going to the movies and whatnot. I’m just trying to point out that people waste so much money on crap and then complain about $10/wk.
Yes there are plenty of families struggling, but I think a lot of them are living beyond their means - not all of them of course. With the above tax concessions and stuff I believe some of those people are supposed to come off a couple of hunge a year better off? I think in the scheme of things in the world, those two coffee breaks and cheaper toilet paper etc are a pretty easy sacrifice to make.
I’m no labour fan child, I just think its a step in the right direction. With the massive investment in renewable energy and those types of businesses, there is going to be jobs created and hopefully, we haven’t fallen too far behind the 8 ball and can become a world leader in this field…then the moolah will flow and we needn’t rely so heavily on the fossil fuel industries…
yeah i know what your saying cords im not really on either side for or against, just trying to put a balanced discussion forward.
some may say i live above my means but we should work to live not live to work. PEACE
i dont think any amount of investment in green energies will produce enough jobs/$$$ to compare or even come anywhere near the $$$/jobs/investment that mining brings. EVER,to the rest of the economical world our country is just a big pit full of coal.
Our country relies on it way too much to be able to stop mining it. its the only thing that kept us out of a recession, the greens want to shut down the mines…the greens are idiots with no clear policies except “oh noes any thing that is bad to the environment must be stopped now!! to hell with the consequences”
haha so what are we supposed to do when the natural resources run out? everyone opposed the mining tax that was possibly going to go into a futures fund for when the coal, oil, etc all runs out - which is inevitable? Half the money from the resources is going offshore anyway, we (being australians) don’t get nearly as much benefit from these things as we should. Its ridiculous to think the mining tax would have lost jobs….that was just a massive scare campaign from people in the mining businesses, thinking only of their profit margins.
Other countries with rich natural resources (like Norway) charge up to 70% tax and no companies have pulled out their investment and no jobs have been lost…and all that money is going to the future for when the oil runs out. Its so short sighted to think we shouldn’t be doing the same.
The mining tax was good to everyone but the mining companies. And even then, it just brought them back in line with where they should be.
Rather than paying 10c per ton of coal, they were going to have to pay 10% of their profit per ton (or something on these lines). They are hiding behind an agreement made in the 80’s or something and then when the tax came out, they made people feel bad in the ads and then we all got angry and it fell though. lol.
The reality is that if a company, such as the big miners, can make a better profit elsewhere, then they will!!!!! And with those profits they will also take jobs!!!!! The only reason that Howard refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol!!!!!
Why do we buy clothes, electronics, cars from os???? Because big companies can make a better profit elsewhere!!!!!
These industries bring $$$ into Australia whether ya like them or not!!!!! And these very $$$ go to makin your lives what they are in this country!!!!!
Like deano said before, there will be no comparable $$$ made in lean green solutions, and even if there is it will be developed by countries that are populated by people that are willing to have a lower standard of living than ourselves!!!!!
You talk about being able to go snowboarding!!!!! There are people in poorer countries that would love to be able to ride a beaten up second hand scooter, just to go to work for 16 hours, so they can afford to get a water pump installed outside there mud hut!!!!!
To much writting in this thread for me 
im not saying we shouldnt invest in green technologies. im all for that to help minimise our carbon emissions BUUUUUUUUT what i am saying is that the greens and the idiots in their party are trying to get rid of this “dirty” technology and replace it with green but cant see that without the “dirty” technology our country will slowly die.
Fair enough replacing the coal fired powerplants with hydro etc. (i for one am all for nuclear) but shutting down the mines will cripple us. im under no illusion it would happen anytime soon but if it does happen, we are f*#ked.
Mizu they won’t go anywhere, as witnessed by my example in norway. They need the stuff, and we’ve got it - simple as that. Its pure scaremongering to say that they will go elsewhere.
Even with a mining or carbon tax, they still make gazillions and get what the stuff they need. We have the supply, they have the demand.
Also - just because executives like Twiggy Forrest say something about having to move offshore - that has no bearing on whether they will or not, its just them hoping to make people scared enough of loss of jobs (and it works) that they go against the mining tax! Call their bluff, tax them and watch them go nowhere!