Labor is making so many promises about its carbon tax that there is almost no alternative but for petrol prices to skyrocket, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said today.
It follows commitments made about the carbon tax, including assistance based on Labor’s shelved 2009 ‘Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme’ (CPRS) package.
Labor has now:
- stated the carbon tax will be budget neutral, with zero impact on the budget bottom line;
- promised that household assistance will be more than 50 per cent of carbon tax revenue; and
- reportedly offered industry carbon tax assistance based on the 2009 CPRS assistance.
“Julia Gillard has created a mix of promises impossible to honour without dramatic increases to petrol prices or decimation of the electricity sector,” Senator Birmingham said today.
“Those 2009 CPRS budget figures show Labor cannot under their carbon tax increase household assistance, maintain industry assistance and eliminate the deficit the CPRS operated under without either slashing the fuel tax offset or taking a sledgehammer to the value of electricity generation assets.
“Recent Treasury modelling, exposed under Freedom of Information laws, shows the inclusion of petrol, or abandonment of fuel tax offsets, makes a $170 to $340 a year difference to household budgets under a carbon tax of $20 to $40 per tonne.
“Australians should be worried by Labor’s suspicious silence on the impact of the carbon tax on both petrol prices and electricity. All the current signs point to impacts on petrol and/or electricity that are even worse than those proposed under the shelved CPRS.
“It’s time for Labor to come clean about the carbon tax. Are they planning huge increases in petrol prices, destruction of the value of electricity generators or are they baking a magic carbon tax pudding where the numbers just cannot stack up?
“Rather than leaving a multi-billion dollar hole in next week’s budget, the Government should front up and tell Australians what they’re really in for and which of their latest carbon tax promises will be the next to be broken.”