Labor carbon target ‘will lower wages’

Energy Minister Angus Taylor warns trade unions Labor’s carbon reduction target will lower wages as Peter Dutton slaps down coal talk.

Peter Dutton.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has written to trade unions warning that Labor’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target will drive down workers’ wages, as ministerial colleagu­e Peter Dutton slapped down calls for taxpayers to fund a new coal-fired power station.

Mr Taylor wrote yesterday to 10 unions and the ACTU arguing that Bill Shorten’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target would cost workers up to $9000 a year in lower wages, and urged them to seek “urgent clarification from Labor how their targets will affect your members’ jobs and wages”.

“Your members have a right to know ahead of the next federal election just how hard Labor’s policies are going to hurt them,” he said.

Independent modelling by BAEconomics has suggested that the target would push electricity prices 50 per cent higher, cost workers up to $9000 a year in lower wages and wipe $472 billion from the economy over the next decade.

The research was authored by Brian Fisher — the former head of the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics — and was revealed last month by The Australian.

But unions swiftly hit back at the letter, with the Electrical Trades Union saying that the minister­ “had made no effort to consult with the ETU, despite our union being the energy industry’s largest stakeholder”.

“For Mr Taylor to reach out with faux concern for ETU members­ barely weeks out from an election is rank political opportunism,” the union said.

“The criticisms surrounding the independence, validity and credibility of the BAEconomics report­ are well publicised.”

Mr Dutton said yesterday that voters in his marginal Brisbane electorate of Dickson — which is being targeted by left-wing activist group GetUp — were not raising the issue of coal-fired power stations­ with him.

The government’s leading Queensland MP warned that using taxpayer funds to support a new coal plant could lead to higher taxes and divert funds away from roads and other infrastructure projects.

“We’ve got taxpayers’ money to spend, the question is whether the federal government should be building a coal-fired power station,’’ Mr Dutton told Sydney radio station 2GB yesterday.

“I don’t agree with that. I don’t think we should be.

“You have got power stations now that will be asking for tax­payers’ money for upgrades. The question is whether people want to pay more taxes or whether you are going to use taxpayer money instead­ of building that road or that new tunnel.”

But he said the government was “not opposed” to underwriting coal projects, as long as it was the “lowest-cost, most-effic­ient use of resource to deliver energy”.

Queensland MP Keith Pitt — one of six Liberal National Party MPs who signed a letter demanding the government underwrite a new power plant in the state — said that no one was calling for taxpayer funds to be used to construct a new cleaner coal plant.

“No one I know of is calling for a subsidy. We are calling for implement­ation of our own policy,” he said. “I agree completely with Peter Dutton. And no one is talking about a capital subsidy. We are talking about implementation of the recommendations from the ACCC report.”

GetUp campaigns director Sam Regester said yesterday calls for more coal-fired power stations were “unfathomable” and “reckless stupidity”, adding: “Urgent action on climate change repeatedly comes up as the No 1 issue for our more than one million members.’’