Page 1743 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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planning on seeing if they can reduce the carbon tax. So it might be that we have ACT Labor supporting a carbon tax when even federal Labor have walked away from it or reduced it.
Here is the opportunity for Katy Gallagher as the Chief Minister, as the leader of the Labor Party in this place, to come in and say: “Look, I was wrong. We’ve gone out too far ahead of the rest of the world. I don’t believe Canberra families should be faced with this cost burden now, and I call on my federal colleagues to, at the very least, reduce the carbon tax if not defer it until there is some serious international action.” We have that opportunity. Canberrans want to do their bit, and they do their bit. Time and time again they do their bit. But this is not about doing their bit; this is about being forced again and again and again to pay.
As Richard Dennis says, we are going to be forced to pay with the emissions target, which will do nothing to reduce overall emissions because of the way the carbon tax is, and we are going to be forced to pay for a carbon tax which is so far ahead of the rest of the world that we will just be engaging in a futile exercise to make the Labor Party and the Greens feel good.
So there is an opportunity here. I do not think Mr Barr is a true green believer in the same way that maybe Mr Corbell is. He is probably not a true green believer, so maybe Mr Barr can show the leadership Ms Gallagher will not show and get out there and say to his federal colleagues: “Look, you’ve got it wrong. Maybe your intentions were good, even though you were dishonest, and you should now actually at least defer it if not lower it.” They should be lowering it. But maybe they will do that anyway. Maybe they will dump the Prime Minister and lower the tax or defer the tax. We can only hope that that will be the case.
From our perspective the Canberra Liberals we will stand up for Canberra families. We will support practical environmental measures, but we will not support taxes for the sake of them or taxes that will have little or no benefit. That is what Canberrans are being asked to cop. That is what Australia is being asked to cop. I think it is legitimate that we ask now for the government to outline all of those costs. What will those costs be to the community and what are they going to do about it?
MR BARR: (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (4.55): There is no doubt that carbon pricing is a key element of a comprehensive plan to secure a healthy environment for Australia’s future. Placing a price on carbon will require Australia’s largest carbon emitters to pay for the greenhouse gases that they produce. As members would be aware, for the first three years the carbon price will be fixed before moving to an emissions trading scheme in 2015.
A price of $23 a tonne will apply in 2012-13. The price will then increase by 2.5 per cent per year in real terms to the 2014-15 fiscal year. Under the ETS arrangements the commonwealth will set a level of carbon emissions and then create auction permits up to the allowed emissions level. Polluters will be required to purchase permits for their emissions. The scheme will provide the option to store excess permits for future years and trade permits on the market.
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