Carbon tax repeal set to pass at third attempt after winning Clive Palmer’s support

ENERGY companies will have to account for their prices after the carbon tax is abolished, Clive Palmer says, under a deal to repeal the scheme.

ENERGY companies will be forced to account for their prices after the carbon tax is abolished, Clive Palmer says, under a deal agreed to repeal the climate scheme.

The House of Representatives passed the eight carbon tax repeal bills at 5.58pm without a division, and the legislation will now move to the Senate.

The Palmer United Party leader, whose three senators last Thursday joined Labor and the Greens to vote down the repeal bills, this afternoon said he’d agreed amendments with the Coalition to remove the Gillard-era tax by week’s end.

The deal includes a legal requirement for about 60 electricity and gas companies to pass on to customers savings from the carbon tax repeal, or face fines equivalent to 250 per cent of the saving withheld, Mr Palmer said.

The measure, which for constitutional reasons must be introduced in the House of Representatives, also has the support of Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party senator Ricky Muir, who will vote to repeal the tax, Mr Palmer said.

“Palmer United supports the bill and the amendment which will be brought forward in the detailed consideration of the bill,” Mr Palmer told parliament.

“For Australia to act alone and impose a tax on carbon at this time is only sought to place tax on jobs and discourage investments.

“The cost of energy for all Australians shows a lack of confidence in our community for investment, for growth, to allow business to employ more people and allow economic stimulation to be undertaken.”

The bills, now set to pass on their third attempt, were presented to the House of Representatives today by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who said he was “very hopeful and expectant” the legislation would go through the Senate this week.

The government is now expected to fast-track the legislation through the lower house to ensure a Senate vote before parliament rises on Thursday. It was still debating the bills this afternoon.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said it was curious the amendments had come from the PUP and not cabinet or the Coalition party room.

“This is a case of the PUP, wagging the tail, wagging the dog,’’ he said.

Mr Hunt told parliament: “The Australian people voted in the most express, clear and absolute way to ensure that they did not have and would not have a carbon tax, and they would have a government that would take real measures to reduce emissions without a carbon tax.

“The carbon tax increased the price of everything it touched; it punishes households, businesses, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, charities, churches, council swimming pools and community centres.

“It hits each and every group and individual who uses energy. And that was always its goal, to make electricity and gas more expensive.

“It is now up to this parliament to show that it has listened to the Australian people.”

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Mr Palmer sided with the Coalition on a vote to bring on the carbon tax debate, while independents Cathy McGowan and Andrew Wilkie voted with Labor and Greens MP Adam Bandt.

Bill Shorten, addressing parliament, conceded it was wrong for Kevin Rudd to abandon his emissions trading scheme rather than call a double dissolution in 2009.

“We could have made this parliament a place of inspiration — a national response to climate change supported by both government and opposition,” the Opposition Leader said of the negotiations between Malcolm Turnbull’s opposition and the Rudd government.

Mr Shorten said once the Coalition voted down emissions trading “we walked away from calling an election that the nation was entitled to have”.

“We did the second best … transforming the international pricing of carbon into a carbon tax.

“But we were right to have international pricing, we were right to support an emissions trading scheme, we were right to have climate change a political priority of the previous government.

“Labor does not apologise … We are not sceptics. We believe the science.”

The agreement on the legislation follows a chaotic Senate sitting last Thursday during which PUP senators sided with Labor and the Greens to block the repeal after Mr Palmer was not satisfied with the way his amendments were being handled.

The Coalition will need six extra votes on top of its 33 senators to repeal the tax.

Conservative crossbench senators David Leyonhjelm and Bob Day initially feared the amendments would unnecessarily impede business, but their fears have been largely assuaged over the weekend.

Senator Day told Sky News: “The compliance and reporting and penalty provisions now only apply to the 60 or so major electricity and gas suppliers so all other businesses now do not get roped in these onerous reporting provisions.”

Additional reporting: AAP