The Northern Territory’s Legislative Assembly has passed a motion calling for the territory to be exempted from a carbon tax for at least 50 years, or until a global consensus is reached on reducing carbon emissions.
The motion will be presented to the federal parliament for the consideration of MPs ahead of debate on Labor’s final carbon tax proposal.
The Country Liberal Party motion was passed last night after crossbench independent Gerry Wood spoke in its support.
Chief Minister Paul Henderson’s minority Labor government would have needed the support of Labor defector, independent Alison Anderson, to win a vote on the floor.
Rather than seek her support, he let the motion pass “on the voices”.
Opposition MP Dave Tollner, who proposed the motion, said the NT would be hit harder by the carbon tax than other states and territories.
“The fact is we have not had 200 years to develop our economy like the other parts of the country,” he said.
Business and Employment Minister Rob Knight said there was too little information on the impact of the carbon tax to agree to the motion.
“Broadly we share the sentiment of the territory not being disadvantaged or it costing Territorians and businesses in our community,” Mr Knight said.
“However, we will not be supporting the proposition of putting a petition to Canberra around this, mainly because there is still very little detail on the proposed carbon tax.
“It is a space we are actively analysing and engaging to see where it all goes.”
Mr Wood, who supports Labor in a minority government arrangement, said a carbon tax would be potentially damaging to the NT economy.
“We eat meat and we need to grow food, and if we are going to be penalised for growing food because we have got long distances to our markets, then I think that that is certainly a backwards step,” he said.
“Transport is by diesel. Diesel will be taxed.”
