Queensland’s horticulture lobby group says the Federal Government is ignoring the “collateral damage” of the carbon price to its industry.
Growcom says the government flippantly rejected its assessment of the effect of the carbon price on the horticulture sector.
Growcom’s policy manager Dave Putland says his organisation doesn’t reject the idea of a carbon tax; it just wants the Commonwealth to take another look at the policy’s consequences for fruit and vegetable growers.
“I don’t think they’re having a realistic investigation of what the cost impacts are for intensive agriculture industries generally,” he said.
“We suspect they lump a lot of farm groups into the climate change denial group, and perhaps that fuels their scepticism of some of our arguments.
“We don’t deny the science of climate change. We don’t necessarily think that carbon pricing is a bad thing. It’s just the way it’s being implemented by the government.”
The Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was unavailable for an interview.
A written statement provided by his office says the Climate Change Department “found Growcom’s report was likely to overestimate the impacts of the carbon price on the horticulture sector.
“Growcom’s modelling adopts simplified assumptions regarding the costs of businesses operating in the horticulture sector, including using estimates of freight costs of produce, fertilisers, chemicals and packaging. The analysis also uses carbon prices which are inconsistent with the modelling undertaken by the Treasury.
“The analysis overstates impacts as it assumes no improvement in the emissions performance of farms or downstream processors as a result of the Government’s assistance programs, including the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), the Jobs and Competitiveness Program and the Clean Technology Programs.”
