Carbon pricing a no-go zone for Labor but Chris Bowen leaves door open to further regulation
The prospect of a carbon tax revival is dead in the water after both major parties committed to not bringing the controversial policy back.
The prospect of a carbon tax in Australia is all but dead as both major parties dismiss the suggestion a global push for emissions pricing could lead to the policy revival.
Labor’s shadow climate change spokesman Chris Bowen on Sunday confirmed a Labor government would not resurrect its contentious emissions policy.
But he did leave the door open to expanding the safeguard mechanism – a benchmark that requires Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to keep their net emissions below a set limit.
“If you’re asking for an emissions trading scheme or carbon price under a Labor Government, no,” Mr Bowen said.
“So would you use regulation?” Insiders host David Speers quizzed.
“There’s a suite of measures available. There’s a safeguards mechanism, where I think you’re heading, which the government said would reduce emissions and Greg Hunt said would be a mechanism to stop industrial emissions going up.”
Asked directly if Labor was considering expanding the measure, Mr Bowen said he wasn’t going to announce policy on television, but noted the Business Council of Australia’s support of the scheme.
“The Business Council, I think, has made a useful contribution, I might say late to the party, with respect to them … It’s symptomatic of the business community now being ahead of the government of the day.”
Mr Bowen also remained coy on when Australia could expect Labor to unveil its climate platform or if an Albanese government would commit to a higher 2030 emissions target.
“We’ll have more to say post Glasgow … we’re waiting on more detail from the (government’s) modelling,” he said.
Speaking to Sky News earlier, Energy Minister Angus Taylor denied the government’s carbon credits policy could make way for an emissions trading scheme.
“That is not how this is working,” he told Sky News.
“The traditional approach to a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme is to impose penalties – penalise the activities you don’t like.
“This is a very different approach – this is an incentives-driven approach.”
Under the voluntary scheme, incentives are provided to organisations who reduce their carbon emissions. A carbon credit unit is earned for each tonne of carbon dioxide stored or avoided.
Participants can sell this carbon unit to the government or in a secondary market to other emitters to reduce their carbon footprint.
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