Federal Election: Labor rebooted carbon scheme would put 40 companies and 10,000 workers at risk, Coalition claims
At least 40 companies employing more than 10,000 workers in NSW could each be hit with multimillion-dollar emissions bills under Labor’s rebooted carbon trading scheme. Meanwhile, the PM tried is hand at sport while on the campaign trail.
NSW
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At least 40 companies employing more than 10,000 workers in NSW could each be hit with multimillion-dollar emissions bills under Labor’s rebooted carbon trading scheme.
Coalition analysis reveals household brands with significant sites in the state including McCain Foods, Coca-Cola and Bega Cheese could have to fork out between $4 million and $7 million for carbon offsets if forced to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.
Mining giant Glencore could face an increase of up to $1 billion while other major resources companies, including Centennial, Yancoal and Boral, could expect to face bills of $222 million-$370 million.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor warned Labor’s plan to force 250 companies into a scheme that requires them to pay to pollute will put thousands of jobs in peril as companies search to reduce costs.
But Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler dismissed the analysis and said the numbers were not “worth the paper they’re written on”.
“Modelling that assumes such a high offset price is weird, wacky and wrong,” Mr Butler said.
Labor’s cap and trade policy extends a Coalition scheme that restricts emissions from heavy polluters. It currently only applies to businesses that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 each year but has pollution caps so high only a handful of companies have been affected.
Labor would lower the threshold to 25,000 tonnes of CO2, capturing 250 companies.
Bill Shorten’s policy document states “the mechanism will reduce industrial pollution in line with Labor’s targets”.
The Coalition analysis assumes each of the 250 firms would be forced to slash emissions by 45 per cent, in line with Mr Shorten’s economy-wide target by 2030.
The costs estimates are based on each company buying carbon offsets with an international carbon price of $35 in 2020 and rising to $62 by 2030 to meet the emissions reduction target rather than finding other ways to cut pollution.
But Mr Butler said Labor would consult with industry on baselines that should apply to companies on an individual basis and that businesses would be able to earn credits and be rewarded for reducing pollution below their baselines.
Mr Taylor said this was a “hidden carbon tax on everything”.
“It will put jobs at risk in NSW manufacturing and in our most important export industries,” he said. “This is only part of the burden that NSW businesses will face. These costs do not include the impact of higher electricity prices under the Shorten government.”
Watching Scott Morrison is a spectator sport
Australia may be a proud sporting nation but our leaders’ hand-eye co-ordination has always left a little to be desired.
Yesterday Scott Morrison joined a dubious list of Australian prime ministers coming off second best on the sporting field.
While visiting South Australia, Mr Morrison tried to show off his sporting prowess by kicking a goal, grabbing a cricket bat, heading a soccer ball and having a hit on the tennis court.
Rugby league-mad Mr Morrison was visiting the marginal seat of Boothby in Adelaide’s south when he picked up a tennis racquet.
But as he lobbed tennis balls to the holiday camp students from Bellevue Heights Tennis Club, he was forced to duck a fireball forehand volley from youngster Samuel Kemp, 11.
“He smashed it,” his coach Justin Tredwell later said. “He just hit it hard.”
The PM also had a kick around with a local 12s football team, joking: “If you hit one of the cameramen you get extra points.”
He then batted away a cricket ball tossed to Bellevue Heights Primary School youngsters after they wrote to him asking for new practice nets.
In stark contrast, his Aussie Rules-mad Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who barracks for Victorian team Carlton, showed silky AFL skills yesterday after kicking an impressive goal at the SCG while announcing more women’s sport support.
History has not been kind to other some previous Australian leaders’ comically bad playing efforts. Bob Hawke ended up with slivers of glass in his eye after being hit in the face with a ball at a charity cricket match in 1984.
And even more infamously, when visiting Pakistan in 2005 John Howard earned ridicule for a risible attempt to bowl to a waiting batsman in an informal cricket match.
Kevin Rudd failed to grab hold of a pull-up bar in Brisbane in 2013 despite a personal trainer’s boost and Malcolm Turnbull attracted groans when he tried to sink a basketball with a netball-style shot. — Emily Baker
Marginal seats on line with franking credit policy
The Liberal Party could extend its narrow lead in the marginal Central Coast seat of Robertson, with Labor’s franking credit policy unpopular with retirees.
Liberal MP Lucy Wicks holds the seat on a slim margin of 1.14 per cent and at the 2016 election won just 2179 more votes on a two-party preferred basis than Labor’s Anne Charlton.
Treasury data shows there are 7323 people in the Central Coast seat who will lose their franking credit refunds if Labor wins the election. Census data from 2016 also shows 21.6 per cent of the population are over the age of 65 — much higher than the NSW average of 16.3 per cent.
Retirees Wilhelmina Hunt, 69, and husband Robert, 71, live in Somersby and survive off their self-managed super fund and a small share portfolio. Mrs Hunt said Labor’s changes would reduce their annual income significantly.
“We will be down $7000 cash per year, which is quite a lot when you trying to survive,” she said.
Mrs Hunt said she would be voting Liberal at the upcoming election for the first time in her life and she believes other retirees who may join her. — Edward Boyd
ALP tastes blood in the water
The Coalition has asked Australia’s Auditor-General to investigate taxpayer-funded water buybacks amid growing controversy over the $79 million deal signed off by Barnaby Joyce.
Labor has seized on the decision, accusing the government of admitting its “has a problem”. But Water Minister David Littleproud tried to turn the tables, calling on the Opposition to come clean on its plans to spend more taxpayer money on contentious buybacks.
He wrote to the Auditor-General Grant Hehir asking him to look at water buybacks over the past decade, capturing a deal secured under the former Labor government.
But Labor water spokesman Tony Burke said any inquiry by would not go far enough to uncover the truth behind the 2017 deal to buy water from two Queensland properties owned by Eastern Australia Agriculture for $78.9 million.
Originally published as Federal Election: Labor rebooted carbon scheme would put 40 companies and 10,000 workers at risk, Coalition claims
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