Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has issued a warning about climate policy that will become “the poisoned chalice” of the Australian politics for the next 10 years and will result in the reneged of the country’s International obligation if the Gillard government fails to implement its carbon tax.
Delivering a speech today in Victoria’s Latrobe valley, home of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, Mr. Combet said Australia will be risking a long-term economic damage if the proposed reform was discarded.
He said: “If we let this chance pass us by, climate change policy will become the poisoned chalice of Australian politics for the next decade.”
He added: “The consequences of this would be profound for all Australians, especially for those businesses that are now so reluctant to take responsibility for their actions and refuse to see beyond next year’s prospectus.”
Setting out a national interest case for pricing carbon, Mr. Combet said Australia would break its word on international obligations and discourage innovation if it failed to put a price on carbon.
He further added: “The eventual cost of economic transformation would also become more expensive as Australia struggled to catch up with the rest of the world.”
He said: “We would lock in the status quo and not provide any reward for the innovation, efficiency and technological development that is the only real way of meeting this challenge.”
“We would not learn how to live in, let alone how to prosper in a carbon-constrained world, while our trading partners would increasingly see us as industrial dinosaurs.”
Mr. Combet promised government assistance in broadening the Latrobe Valley’s economic base under a carbon price.
The Climate Change Minister said: “A carbon price will not mean that this foundation will be pulled out from underneath the Valley, but it will mean a diversification of the economy and a long-term transition to a less carbon-dependent economy.”
The speech came as independent MP Rob Oakeshott today called for petrol to be excluded from the carbon tax.
“I’d be on the starting side of it being out. It is an issue of importance for constituents and for businesses on the mid-north coast,” he told reporters, referring to his NSW electorate.
The multi-party climate committee, of which Mr. Oakeshott is a member, is currently finalizing details of the tax.
The Greens have called for a carbon price in excess of $40, but Mr. Combet yesterday said the starting price would be “well south” of that figure.
Greens leader Bob Brown seized on a report yesterday that suggested a carbon price of $40 a ton was needed to drive energy produces to switch from coal to gas.
The push to price carbon has already killed off two political leaders; they were former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also place her own political future on the line for the carbon tax.
