Carbon Price

The situation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors seems to be improving, but the long-term fallout remains unclear. The Punch spoke to Associate Professor Haydon Manning - head of politics and public policy at Flinders University and a man with a particular interest in nuclear power - and asked him what it means for the political future of nuclear.

What’s the history of nuclear fear in Australia?

In the Australian community we’ve never had to confront the stark reality - like the French, the Japanese and South Korea have - of real energy shortage. Given our abundance of coal and gas we’ve never had to focus on any of the positive arguments for nuclear power as the answer to a problem or energy security.

Rather, we associated nuclear power with weapons. This is certainly true of someone like me, who as a student marched on the streets in opposition to Olympic Dam in the late 70s. Then in 1979 we had the ‘icing on the anti nuclear cake’ when Three Mile Island had its minor meltdown.

Continue reading "Q & A: Will the carbon price force a nuclear rethink?" »

Since the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee made its announcement regarding a price on carbon late last month, Australians may well be feeling a slightly creepy sense of déjà vu.

An increasingly frenzied federal Coalition is foaming at the mouth and making ludicrous predictions about the future of the country. CEOs of multibillion-dollar companies are wailing about the certain demise of their industry. And a small group of right-wing cheerleaders is screaming from the sidelines, predicting nothing short of the complete collapse of the Australian economy.

Does this scenario feel familiar to anyone else? Of course it does, because we saw the exact same thing last year over the proposed mining tax.

Continue reading "Creepy sense of déjà vu over carbon tax" »

You are currently paying polluters to pollute – they should be paying you.

Did you know that your tax dollars are currently paying polluters to pollute?

A carbon price is part of a vitally important process of turning that around – making sure that the big polluters pay for their pollution and some of that money comes back to you to help build a cleaner, healthier, happier community. A carbon price, teamed with policies like a feed-in tariff, means we can drive investment towards the solar future while making sure that governments have the funds to help people struggling to make ends meet.

Continue reading "COUNTERPUNCH: A carbon price is the answer" »

This week in Parliament the Government pointedly refused to rule out a carbon tax on petrol. A $26 a tonne carbon price on petrol would add about $3 to the cost of filling up a car. This would be on top of the carbon tax’s impact on power bills, which the Australian Industry Group this week predicted would go up $300 a year thanks to carbon pricing alone.

Before the last election, the Prime Minister repeatedly ruled out a carbon tax.

As part of her deal with the Greens to cling to power, she has specifically embraced a price on carbon and has promised to establish a carbon taxing regime next year. A carbon tax would cascade through the economy ultimately adding to virtually every price.  Every time you turn on the lights you will pay under Labor’s carbon tax. Every time you go to the petrol pump you will pay under Labor’s carbon tax.

Continue reading "Gillard never met a tax she didn’t like and hike" »

Gillard’s recent decision to cut funding to renewable energy projects clashes with a growing consensus that carbon pricing alone will not move Australia towards a renewable energy future.

Senior finance columnist Ross Gittins is the most recent to take aim at the shambles that is Gillard’s climate strategy, writing that “imposing a price on carbon emissions won’t solve the problems most of the affected climate programs were intended to tackle.”

While it is revealing enough that a respected commentator with over 30 years’ experience disagrees with Gillard’s blinkered focus on carbon pricing, even more telling is the fact that his voice is just one of a choir.

Continue reading "Putting a price on carbon is just the beginning" »

After all the scorn and criticism surrounding the much talked of, somewhat derided, plan for a Citizen’s Assembly Gillard has just announced a new plan to tackle climate change, in the form of a multi-party climate change committee; investigating and deliberating over the best way to implement a price on carbon.

Gillard’s definitely singing a different tune to her pre-election decisiveness that she had “ruled out” the possibility of a carbon tax under any government she lead.

Now, after a lot of somewhat hysterical party shuffling, repositioning, negotiating and endless demands and speeches. Gillard is most certainly leading her misshapen, conglomerate government, and the possibility of a carbon tax is most certainly back on the table.

Continue reading "Climate committee is no citizens assembly, thank God" »

The drama of the 2010 federal election came to an end as the independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor threw their support behind Labor. This has an immediate impact on Australian climate policy.

A Gillard minority government promises a new cross-party Climate Change Committee to spearhead carbon-pricing legislation in the next term of government. This agenda will face stiff opposition, but with the right design, it can help move Australia towards a low-carbon economy.

Both Labor and the Greens support the notion of carbon pricing but have not yet agreed on the specific mechanism for doing so. (Labor attempted to pass an emissions-trading bill in its last term, however the Senate twice rejected the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The Coalition opposed the CPRS because it was too onerous, and Greens because it was too weak. As a stopgap measure, the Greens proposed an ‘interim carbon price’ of $20 per tonne for two years, but Rudd and Gillard dismissed the idea.)

Continue reading "What we still need to know about a carbon price" »

On Friday, Gillard announced Labor’s climate change policy in the lead up to the election. She announced her intentions to create a citizens assembly to evaluate the evidence for climate change and confirmed that an interim price on carbon would not be considered by the Labor government at least until 2012.

Ironically, she announced this somewhat vacuous, indecisive plan at the University of Queensland – theoretically a place for young people to “move forward” and a place of long-term sustainable innovation.  Furthermore, she made this announcement to an audience of young people.  Young people, who have a stake in their government taking decisive action on climate change to protect their futures.

I am all for community consensus when it means taking practical and tangible steps to ensure that the interests of stakeholders are respected in decision-making processes.

Continue reading "Gillard’s people’s assembly ignores the people" »