Fears over return of carbon tax which will see electricity price hike

LABOR has gone on the attack over its new climate policy, with Bill Shorten accusing Malcolm Turnbull of running a ‘rich man’s Tony Abbott scare campaign’.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said a carbon tax revive will only drive power prices up. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Labor’s emissions trading policy would drive up electricity prices, a claim the Opposition says is borrowed directly from Tony Abbott’s playbook.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s emissions trading scheme will force big polluters who emit more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon pollution a year to buy carbon offsets.

The policy will also call for 50 per cent of the nation’s electricity sourced from renewables by 2030.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is expected to announce plans to revive a carbon tax. Picture: Kym Smith.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters he had “no doubt” targets set at future climate summits would be increased.

“They’ll move up in the decades ahead but they should move up together,” he said.

“We should move up with the world because if the world does not move together then you won’t get the outcome.”

Mr Turnbull said the plan would “double the burden on Australia relative to other countries” and drive power prices up.

He said the emissions target commitments made by Australia at the climate summit in Paris last year was already “very substantial”.

“It’s to reduce our emissions by 26 to 28 per cent,” he told the ABC.

“On a per capita basis because we have a strong population growth, that actually amounts to more than a 50 per cent cut in emissions per capita so it is a very substantive cut.

“Labor is proposing nearly twice as much, 45 per cent.

“That is well above what we committed to in Paris and will put a very big burden on Australians.”

Mr Turnbull said the plan would result in “much higher” power prices.

“What we do know, when a similar target was modelled on the basis of Labor’s previous scheme, it would have required a very substantial increase in electricity prices,” he said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Mr Turnbull was attempting to run a “rich man’s Tony Abbott scare campaign”.

“There will be no carbon tax under Labor, there will be no fixed price under Labor,” he said.

“What we are doing instead is working with the market to create an Emissions Trading Scheme.

“We are going to put a cap on pollution because if you don’t put a cap on pollution you’re not serious about tackling it.”

Opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler said an electricity price hike is an unproven claim by Turnbull and former PM Tony Abbott. Picture: Mark Stewart

Opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler said the Prime Minister’s claims were unproven.

“Well (former Prime Minister) Tony Abbott tried the old scare campaign that expanding renewable energy lifted power prices and his own hand-picked panel, which was a reasonably sceptical panel about climate change, I might say,” he told the ABC earlier.

“His panel confirmed that expanding renewable energy actually puts downward pressure on power prices.

“Since that panel’s report you haven’t heard much from Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull about the tired old power prices scare campaign.

“We’re confident that will still be the case through the 2020s.”

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said if electricity prices went up so too would the cost of everything else.

“Is this what you want? Is this the policy of the Labor, the Greens, and the Independents? Let’s make people poorer,” he said.

“What a brilliant policy to take to the election.

“We (Labor), the Greens and the Independents are going to make people poorer.

“Because it’s good for you. Because it’s righteous. Because it’s what we believe despite what the realities are in your life.”

It’s believed Labor’s policy also includes the introduction of land clearing restrictions, including Federal Government regulation of broad-scale clearing.

Mr Joyce said the Opposition was attempting to tell farmers how best to run their land, claiming they wanted to put a federal police officer in every paddock.

Mr Butler said the ETS would not put a price on carbon.

“Businesses will not be required to purchase permits to continue to operate,” he said.

“This is a very, very significant change from Labor’s previous policies.

“Labor heard a very clear message from the Australian people about the carbon tax and we will not be returning to that model.”

He said the Opposition favoured a market-based solution.

“Australia is a free and trading economy that allows businesses to operate in all of the international trading markets and we see no reason why the same principles should not operate in relation to international carbon markets,” he said.

“The business groups have said to us clearly they want their members to have access to robust, well governed international carbon trading markets.”