Australians are almost evenly split over a carbon tax, a key option before the government’s high-level committee on how to price carbon.
The public also has much more faith in government regulation as the best way of cutting emissions than either an emissions trading scheme or a tax.
Polling by UMR Research late last month of 1000 people found when they were asked whether they generally supported a carbon tax, 44 per cent were in favour and 42 per cent opposed.
But asked which of three methods would be best to reduce emissions, 56 per cent said government regulations on companies, 17 per cent an ETS and only 11 per cent a carbon tax.
Discussion has moved towards a carbon tax partly because of government-Green differences about an ETS. The Greens want much tougher targets than the government could accommodate politically.
UMR managing director John Utting said the results showed people wanted ”the easy way out. They prefer some sort of government fiat to solve the problem,” which showed how hard it would be for the government to implement a trading scheme or a tax.
The chief of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout, yesterday warned that any carbon tax should be revenue neutral and ”proofed” against making Australian industry less competitive internationally. She told The Age an ETS was still arguably the superior way to tackle climate change.
”A market-based mechanism is better”, said Ms Ridout, who is expected to be a member of the business round table advising Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s carbon price committee.
The government is expected today to announce the membership of the two round tables supporting the committee.
The second one, of union, environmental and community representatives, will include ACTU president Ged Kearney, Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes, and Tony Maher, from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
The polling found men and older people more inclined than women and younger voters to oppose a carbon tax.
Six in 10 Labor voters and three-quarters of Greens voters back a carbon tax but it is opposed by nearly two-thirds of Coalition voters.
Those living in metropolitan areas are more likely to be in favour than regional dwellers.
As the Coalition focuses on the prospect of higher electricity prices, opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said the Coalition would seek through freedom of information a Morgan Stanley report on the impact of an ETS on power prices and power companies that the government had been sitting on.
