Australian PM Reintroduces Legislation to Repeal Carbon Tax

The Australian Liberal government on Monday, 23 June reintroduced legislation to repeal the country’s carbon tax, three months after opposition parties Labor and the Greens rallied in the Senate to defeat the first attempt.

“The people have spoken and now it’s up to this Parliament to show it listened,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott told lawmakers when introducing the bill. “The Australian people have passed their judgement on the carbon tax,” he continued.

The legislation, expected to quickly pass through the House of Representatives where the current coalition government holds a majority, will then be among the first orders of business for the new Senate when it takes office on 1 July.

Abbott has said that he hopes the new Senate will move quickly to “scrap this toxic tax.” Some senators have nevertheless criticised the government for imposing a seemingly unreasonable timeframe for such a crucial vote.

The controversial tax, introduced by then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2011, entered into force in July 2012, and primarily targets Australia’s largest emitters.

Levies were initially fixed at A$23 (€16.43) per metric tonne of carbon during their first year, rising annually at a rate of 2.5 percent. The tax was then scheduled to move to a floating price emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2015.

At the time, the move was slated as a bid to help Australia – one of the world’s largest per capita emitters – move away from domestic dependence on coal and transition towards more sustainable energy supplies. Opponents of the tax, however, warned that the cost to both coal exports and the Australia public would be too much to bear.