The Democratic Labor Party was the first party to publically oppose any form of carbon tax or emissions trading scheme. The recent passing of the Clean Energy Bills through both houses of parliament has not altered our stand on this issue.
The idea that taxing Australians could in any way alter the climate or even make any significant gains on a global scale is absolute nonsense.
The introduction of such a scheme will:
- Act as a tariff on our manufacturers trying to compete with other nation’s economies less which are less restrained
- Increase input costs to all industries by way of rising power and energy costs
- Deter investment in Australia as Australian and overseas investors look to economies that haven’t placed this form of tariff on their industries
- Threaten regional jobs in manufacturing ,food processing, transport and many more
- Consumer price increases across the board at the checkout as transport and refrigeration costs continue to rise.
- Assist our neighbouring countries to compete and shut down our industries as they profit from cheaper coal usage then Australians can.
- Export the Problem – Export the Jobs
As part of the Clean Energy Bills and in line with the Cancun agreement, many billions of dollars (10% of tax collected) off Australians will be forwarded to a fund administered by the UN, which will act to assist developing nations move to a more clean energy environment. Despite signing the agreement in 2010 the current government made no attempt to explain this to the public. The idea that our taxes are being used and administrated by a foreign organisation would be unacceptable to most Australians.
Other doubts appear when Treasury figures predicting a World carbon price of $29 in 2016 seem to clash with many private trading houses and Bloomberg is predicting a carbon price of $16 per Tonne. If this were to be the case then Budgets in the years following would be blowing out threatening any compensation to householders on offer.
The DLP will support any incoming coalition government that acts to dismantle this “Anti-Industry Anti-Energy, Anti-Life Tax” and will hold them to account to deliver on their promise to do so.