It seems that everyone is having their say on the impact of a carbon tax on low income earners, except low income earners themselves, the “ordinary” Australian workers on very modest rates of pay. I’m not referring to the $150K “middle-class battlers” of the Budget debate fretting over mortgages and private school fees, but the 20 per cent of the Australian workforce in low paid jobs, who may be taking home just $25K or $35K, and for whom a poorly designed carbon tax may be one blow too many to the family budget.
United Voice represents over 120,000 of Australia’s lowest paid workers in industries like aged care, child care, cleaning, hospitality, tourism and security. We know what “cost of living” pressures really mean, because it is our members whose low pay forces them into making tough decisions like forgoing doctor’s visits or no longer buying meat, even on a full-time wage.
When there’s already nothing left at the end of the week - and while many of our jobs remained casualised and insecure - what will a price on carbon mean?
The presumption that, as a union, we will automatically support the Gillard Labor Government is wrong. We will do what’s best for our members, including holding a Labor-led government to account.
Our members are worried about climate change and what it will mean for them and their children. They want action by government. A large number of our members are in tourism, an industry singled out in the first Garnaut review as particularly vulnerable to decline. Our members also live in low-cost housing in areas like flood plains which were so devastated in the Queensland floods.
On the other hand we are also the group least able to invest in new technologies like solar panels, fuel efficient cars and new, more efficient appliances and also the least able to absorb any further impost on the cost of ordinary goods, via a carbon tax.
That’s why we will be pushing the Gillard Government hard to clearly set out how a price on carbon can be implemented without imposing an extra burden on workers. Compensation must be the key to any carbon tax and must offset the cost for those low income workers most vulnerable to price changes.
Better, sustainable outcomes for low income earners - and the environment - can be achieved if some of the remaining 45 per cent of revenue is invested in renewable energy and smart solutions, in particular in mechanisms to make renewable energy products and services affordable for low-income workers.
Finally, there must be a properly funded “watchdog” to prevent profiteering or price gouging based on higher costs associated with the carbon tax. Unfortunately, as consumers we don’t trust all Australian businesses and we are concerned the tax may be used as an excuse to seek to increase profits by increasing prices beyond the tax’s real impact.
There’s been a great deal of fear-mongering over “cost of living” pressures by opponents of the tax which has left many workers both nervous and confused.
This should be kept in perspective; the biggest driver of recent increases in energy prices is actually multi-billion dollar investments in power distribution infrastructure.
That doesn’t mean low-income earners can afford even the estimated $300 a year more the tax will cost families; but it does mean the link between price pressures and a carbon tax should not be exaggerated. It is the responsibility of both sides of politics to present the facts, not the spin.
The ball is now in the Gillard Government’s court, despite Mr Abbott’s relentless calls for a new election as a referendum on the carbon tax. We support action on climate change but we are determined to make sure low paid workers are heard - and that the Labor-led government is held to account if they are not.
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