16 August
2006 - A plan for a national emissions trading
scheme released by the Labor states and endorsed
by Kim Beazley’s Federal Labor Party today will
see home electricity prices soar in NSW and the
ACT.
In a table contained deep within
the 228-page emissions trading paper, it is revealed
that if Labor has its way and introduces such
a tax, residents in NSW and the ACT can expect
to pay up to $122 more each year.
Even the best-case scenario
under this plan will see homeowners in NSW and
the ACT paying $42 more for their electricity
each year.
The emissions trading scheme
effectively taxes traditional power sources such
as coal-fired power stations and presumes (rightly)
that the cost will be immediately passed onto
consumers.
The Labor emissions trading
plan is designed to reduce Australia’s greenhouse
gas emissions by 60% by 2050.
However Kim Beazley and his
colleagues don’t seem to realise that Australia
only produces 1.46% of the world’s greenhouse
gas emissions and acting alone like this simply
exports Australian jobs and does almost nothing
to confront the environmental problems we face.
That is why the Australian Government
has a long-standing policy of only supporting
an emissions trading scheme which is comprehensive
and international.
The Labor scheme is so bad that
less an hour after it was released, the Premier
of Western Australian, Alan Carpenter, said his
state would have nothing to do with it.
“I would also want assurances
that any trading scheme would not adversely impact
the state’s capacity to rely on energy sources
such as coal”.
(Alan Carpenter press release, 16/8/06)
If Kim Beazley was a strong leader he would admit
he was wrong as well.
Two down, four to go - WA and
Qld dump Labor's carbon tax scheme
16 August 2006 - Less than 10
hours old and the State’s much vaunted emissions
trading scheme has been debunked by the two most
prosperous states in Australia.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie
could not have been more dismissive of Labor’s
new carbon tax scheme when he said:
“I refuse to support projects
which sound good, but deliver bugger all.”
(Premier Beattie, ABC TV News, 16 August 2006)
Earlier in the day, and less than an hour after
the project was launched to great fanfare in New
South Wales, Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter
rubbished the scheme saying he:
“…would not commit Western Australia to any form
of national greenhouse gas emissions trading until
there was more evidence that WA interests would
not be adversely affected.”
(Premier Carpenter media release, 16 August 2006)
This emissions trading scheme is nothing more
than a carbon tax which will cost every household
in Australia.
This project of the less prosperous
Labor states to have resource-rich Western Australia
and Queensland fund their parlous economies is
style over substance.
It will provide not one climate change dividend
and will dramatically increase power bills for
Australian families and businesses.
Rob Broadfield
