The passing of the carbon pricing and renewable energy laws last Tuesday has been hailed as a victory for economic growth and energy security by local climate action group, Climate Change Australia (CCA).
CCA also sees it as a significant start to tackling dangerous climate change.
CCA president Harry Creamer said it is a plan for prosperity and progress — a blueprint for Australia’s future.
“It starts low and goes slow and, with compensation to households, is not something to fear. It has targets to reduce carbon pollution by 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 and is a win-win — for the environment and the economy,” Mr Creamer said.
“The laws start on July 1, 2012, with the top 500 polluting companies paying $23 for every tonne of carbon pollution they emit. This will reduce Australia’s carbon emissions by 160 million tonnes by 2020,” he said.
“Our members think the compensation package for households, pensioners and businesses is a good one, with one million taxpayers not having to pay tax through raising the tax-free threshold to $18,000.
“Nine out of ten households are to be compensated through Centrelink payment increases, tax cuts, or both.
“Households with incomes up to $80,000 will be better off. Four million households will get an extra 20 per cent buffer payment to compensate,” Mr Creamer said.
“A predicted 0.7 per cent increase in the CPI is much less than the 2.5 per cent experienced with the GST ten years ago.
“We adapted to that and we will to this reform. These measures amount to an average cost of living increase of $9.90 week, with total average compensation of $10.10,” he said.
Mr Creamer also welcomed a clean energy fund to help build an Australian renewable energy industry, saying it will drive innovation to a cleaner energy future and create new jobs in the renewable energy sector.
“We’d also like to acknowledge the key role of Rob Oakeshott in this process, by doing what he knows is the right thing at this time in our development as a nation, despite hostile and ill-informed opposition,” Mr Creamer said.
“Whatever the climate change deniers say, we have to confront the challenge of climate change before it’s too late.
“That means cutting carbon pollution; and the cheapest, most cost-effective way to do this is by pricing carbon emissions through the market, not by using taxpayers’ money on a couple of token projects, as is the Opposition’s policy.”
