Carbon price disasterPUBLISHED: 19 Apr 2013 00:33:55 | UPDATED: 19 Apr 2013 00:33:55PUBLISHED: 19 Apr 2013 PRINT EDITION: 19 Apr 2013
It has been reported that the European carbon price has crashed to $4 per tonne. Australia’s current price is pitched at $23 per tonne. This means that Australian businesses and especially exporters are at a massive disadvantage. It also represents a large tax loss for future budgets.
Wayne Swan is now looking like a treasurer without too much treasure and Greg Combet, the Climate Change Minister who has been spruiking the carbon tax as our economic saviour, is beginning to look like a funeral director’s apprentice. For Prime Minister Julia Gillard, this represents another disaster.
One suspects that many Labor MPs in marginal seats, and even those considered safe, are sweating.