Companies that use the carbon tax as an excuse to price gouge will face fines of up to $1.1 million as part of a price watch regime to be overseen by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Individuals caught profiteering face maximum penalties of $220,000.
The penalties, contained in the Australian Consumer Law which came into effect on January 1, also include forcing transgressors to pay damages and compensation.
The law will be applied by the commission, which was similarly employed to police the first three years of the GST against price gouging. During that period it investigated 7000 complaints.
According to a report issued by the commission, some companies were named and shamed, 11 were taken to court, 55 enforceable court orders were issued and $21 million was refunded to 2 million consumers.
The government is expected to outline the new regime soon as it continues selling the carbon price to a hostile electorate.
Under section 29 of the consumer law, a person is prohibited from making false or misleading representations in connection with the supply, possible supply or promotion of goods or services.
The $23 a tonne carbon tax will begin on July 1, 2012. The government says the cost of living should rise on average by 0.7 per cent and it will be mindful of profiteers exacerbating a volatile political situation.
Reeling from another bad opinion poll yesterday, the government seized on a $4.7 million takeover bid for Macarthur Coal, saying it destroyed the credibility of Tony Abbott and the coal lobby who have been claiming the industry will be ”destroyed” by the carbon tax. The US company Peabody, whose NSW coalmines Mr Abbott has visited in recent days to underscore his claims of ruin, is making the takeover bid in tandem with steelmaker ArcelorMittal.
Coking coal is in great demand among Chinese steelmakers. The government says its carbon price will add about $1.60 to a tonne of coking coal, which sells at present for more than $300 a tonne. Macarthur Coal’s share price rose 36 per cent yesterday.
Ms Gillard said the takeover bid showed Peabody knew ”there’s a great future in coalmining in this country”.
”So, fear raised unnecessarily,” she said. ”Tony Abbott was predicting armageddon for the coalmining industry yesterday. The future of the coalmining industry is bright.”
The Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, claimed the takeover bid also destroyed the credibility of the boss of the Australian Coal Association, Ralph Hillman, who is forecasting the loss of thousands of jobs.
”That Ralph Hillman’s got no credibility whatsoever,” he said.
Mr Abbott claimed the takeover was motivated by the carbon price rendering Macarthur Coal ”vulnerable”. ”Coal is a goner,” he said.
Mr Hillman said he never disputed that coalmines would keep operating, just that employment in future mines would grow by 37 per cent less than if there were no carbon tax.
Ms Gillard visited a steel plant in Melbourne yesterday after granting the industry an extra $300 million in compensation on top of the free permits to pollute it will receive. Mr Abbott has said steel towns such as Whyalla will be wiped off the map by the tax. Ms Gillard rejected the claim.
