THE introduction of news laws into Federal Parliament to repeal the carbon tax will provide a significant boost to more than 10,000 small businesses in the Lyne electorate, according to Lyne MP Dr David Gillespie.
However, Dr Gillespie’s claims have been disputed by the Hastings branch of Climate Change Australia.
In a press release, Dr Gillespie said cafes, butchers, bakers, and other small businesses across the Mid North Coast would get a boost after the Federal Government introduced legislation to repeal the unpopular tax.
“The government is honouring its election commitment moving as its first order of business to repeal the world’s biggest carbon tax,” Dr Gillespie said.
“Small businesses will benefit from lower electricity and gas prices once the carbon tax is removed, saving them around seven to nine per cent.”
Dr Gillespie went on to say the removal of the carbon tax was about making life easier for local small businesses not harder.
“What Labor failed to realise was that the carbon tax compounded at every stage of the supply chain and that small businesses got squeezed even harder by suppliers and cost conscious consumers when it was introduced,” he said.
“No other sector of the economy was harmed more by the carbon tax than small business because it wasn’t given any of the compensation or handouts afforded to others.”
He said the government would ensure price reductions from repealing the carbon tax flow through to small businesses by providing additional resources to the ACCC for enforcement.
Disputing Dr Gillespie’s claims, the president of the Hastings branch of Climate Change Australia, Harry Creamer, said it would be naive of small businesses to expect a full nine per cent drop in electricity prices.
“They’ll be lucky to get half of that, and with electricity accounting for just three per cent of typical small business costs, that’s 4.5 per cent of three per cent, which is not a lot,” he said.
“Fifty per cent of electricity costs are due to ‘gold plating’ the poles and wires and that will not change if the carbon price goes.
“Add to that the loss of energy efficiency grants to small and medium businesses when the revenue from the carbon price dries up, and small businesses will have to compete with big business for much less funding, then axing the carbon tax is not such a good deal.
Mr Creamer said the costs to small business were already mounting due to the impacts of climate change – eg, insurance and supply chain interruptions – and would increase as global warming worsened.
“We have to fix this problem now, using the most cost-efficient way, which is to keep a price on pollution and make renewable energy more competitive,” he said.
