The Environment Minister in Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government, Greg Hunt, has refused to say if business will continue to pay the carbon price after next June if the government’s repeal bills have not passed.
The government’ has just published its draft legislation, which says the carbon price will not continue beyond June 30 next year.
However, Mr Hunt, who will today start consulting business and environment groups about the legislation, has told ABC Radio News the repeal bills need to pass for the impost to be scrapped.
“The tax ends on June 30, 2014, the moment that legislation is passed,” he said.
He would not spell out whether businesses would continue to be liable if that did not happen until after June.
Labor’s acting environment spokesman Mark Butler agrees the current carbon price must go, but he says Labor will not support the legislation to repeal it unless an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is put in place.
“On that point we do agree with Tony Abbott, but we’ve always said there has to be a credible policy to combat climate change,” Mr Butler said.
“The problem with this legislation as it stands is that it puts absolutely nothing credible in place of the carbon tax.
“Come to the table and seriously discuss an emissions trading scheme,” Mr Butler said.
Under the current legislation the carbon price will revert to a market based ETS on July 1, 2015 that is linked to the European Union’s ETS.
The Australian Greens Party have also indicated they will not support the repeal legislation, which means the government may have to wait for the new upper house Senate in July next year.
The leader of the Palmer United Party, Clive Palmer, who is expected to have three senators in the new Senate, which begins next July, has told ABC News his party is not in a position to consider the bills until it has more resources.
Meanwhile the Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott has stepped up pressure on the Labor Party, following the release of the draft laws to repeal the carbon price with a warning to the opposition to “repent” of its support for the measure.
An exposure draft of the legislation to repeal Labor’s carbon pricing scheme has been released on the Environment Department’s website.
Mr Abbott said the bill will be the first considered by the new Parliament, as promised before the election.
“It is a bill designed to not only keep the government’s commitments, but to do the right thing by the people of Australia,” he told a news conference in the national capital, Canberra.
The government says abolishing the scheme will save households $550 a year, including through lower electricity and gas bills.
The compensation measures brought in by the former Labor government, such as increased pension and family payments, will also remain in place.
