Labor in Denial on Cost of Carbon Tax on Electricity

15/11/11

The Federal ALP is in denial and cover up mode over the impact of the Carbon Tax on electricity prices.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has denounced Premier Barry O'Farrell for wanting to show the real cost of the Carbon Tax on electricity bills in NSW.

The reason the ALP is afraid of the truth is that they have been trying to hide the impact of the Carbon Tax on electricity.  While the Federal Government modelling says there will be a 10% increase in electricity prices in year one, the NSW Treasury says 15%, the Electricity Supply Association of Australia says 20% and the Centre for International Economics says 30% by 2020.

The Federal modelling is based on the complete fiction that the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea, not to mention China and India will be part of a global trading system by 2016.  Even the Minister has conceded this is impossible but the fiction of the modelling remains and with it the fiction of the electricity price impacts.

The Prime Minister should openly ask President Obama next week for a guarantee that the US will have a Carbon Tax or cap and trade system by 2016.  If not then she must immediately have the Government's modelling re-done based on the real world.

In the meantime, the Government should stop trying to hide the impact of the Carbon Tax on electricity prices and welcome moves for transparency on how much it will cost Australians every time they turn on a light.