Railroading through the Parliament the most significant economic reform in Australian history is a high risk, dangerous approach that makes no sense, especially when most Australians don’t know how it will effect them.
Labor’s emissions trading legislation is premature and flawed.
Why race ahead and burden our economy in advance of the Copenhagen conference and before the commitments of other countries like the US, Canada, China, India and Japan are known? The ETS is actually spelt T-A-X. Yes, a tax on everything that moves - all goods and services. Tasmanians will face a 16% increase in power costs and the rest of Australia more than 20% and at least an extra $1,100 cost per year per family. Transport and food costs will go up. Australia will immediately become less competitive with industry and business departing for China and India, costing thousands of jobs. Federal Labor should come clean with the public and disclose the cost of living increases under this legislation and the dramatic effect it will have on their lives.
In Tasmania, these effects will be magnified. We have more than 35,000 small businesses many of which are export focused. 1 in 5 Tasmanian jobs depends on exports. With significant increases in power and transport costs, jobs and businesses will be lost in our State, despite the fact that Tasmania has already made a greater transition to renewable, low carbon energy sources than any other State or territory in Australia. According to TCCI Chief Economist Richard Dowling, Tasmania is getting no reward for the advances it has already made on climate change. “Tasmania reduced it carbon emissions levels by 30% in the 1990’s, but this is not acknowledged by the current ETS as proposed,” Mr Dowling said. For Tasmanian small businesses who can only accept the prices determined overseas, these additional costs will have a devastating affect. If we wait until after Copenhagen, at least we can take on these additional costs in parallel with our competitors and Tasmanian businesses would not be disadvantaged.
Many of the key stakeholders have been compensated for the increased cost of doing business, but not small and micro businesses. Why not? And aren’t the operators of these small businesses the same mums and dads who will be hit with higher grocery and electricity costs at home?
Tasmania already operates using a significant amount of renewable energy, thus allowing businesses like Nyrstar to produce ‘green’ products in a sustainable manner. Adding to costs here may force such companies to move offshore, causing a net increase in global CO2 emissions. This is the kind of detail we need to address when scrutinizing the Government’s ETS.
I support action on climate change and a price on carbon emissions. As a community we should give our earth the benefit of the doubt. But I also support proper scrutiny of legislation that will cause major structural change to our economy for generations to come. Once we make this change, there will be no turning back: it is irreversible. Why then does Mr Rudd want to rush this legislation through? Perhaps to satisfy his own ego and strut on the world stage in Copenhagen.
Labor says all those who oppose its legislation support doing ‘nothing’ about climate change and are a sceptic. This is nonsense. Most Australians want action on climate change but they don’t want it rushed and they expect full disclosure. If the Copenhagen talks produce only a vague, non-binding declaration on future action, but the ETS is already legislated, Australian firms will start paying billions of dollars in carbon costs from 1 July 2011 while the rest of the world continues to make up its mind. The Government’s ETS will reduce forecast employment in Australia’s minerals sector by an estimated 23,510 by 2020 and 66,400 by 2030. The Tasmanian minerals industry is projected to lose 1,050 jobs by 2020 and 2,500 jobs by 2030 under Labor’s proposed scheme.
When there is still so much to be worked out, why would we put all of our eggs in Labor’s ETS basket? Australia can do more to promote energy efficiency measures in the home, business and the community. Recent bipartisan support saw a boost for clean energy with 20% of all energy consumed to come from renewables such as wind, solar and hydro by 2020. This is great for Tasmania with the $350 million wind farm development in the north-east set to start soon. Unfortunately Labor has closed its mind to the clean-energy nuclear option. Bad move. Every country Australia’s size or larger has nuclear power. We could meet much of our carbon reduction targets via this initiative alone.
When it comes to the detail of the ETS, the Government has refused or been unable to answer many of the questions asked in the Senate to date. This does little to build confidence or trust. For these and other reasons I crossed the floor for the first time in my Parliamentary career last week to support further scrutiny by a Senate committee. We only have one shot in the locker at getting this legislation right. We should defer a vote on the ETS legislation, examine the bill in detail, take on board the results of Copenhagen, and then move forward in parallel with other countries in taking action on climate change.