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BY:LAUREN WILSON From: The Australian July 15, 2013 ETS on the horizon Kevin Rudd says he’ll scrap the carbon tax and move to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than was plann TONY Abbott has dismissed emissions trading schemes as markets for the “non-delivery of an invisible substance”. The Coalition Leader’s criticism of the widely accepted, market-based method of trying to curb carbon emissions came as Labor prepares to switch from a carbon tax to an ETS one year earlier than originally planned. Treasurer Chris Bowen said today the Rudd government’s decision to move early from a fixed to a floating carbon price was a response to changes in the Australian economy and a concession families could do with hip-pocket relief. But Mr Abbott, who has campaigned against a carbon tax, said the change meant nothing. “It’s more fake change from Kevin Rudd. The one thing he has done is he has admitted that what the Coalition was saying about the carbon tax was right all along,” he told reporters in Sydney. “This is not a true market, just ask yourself what an ETS is all about, it’s a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one.” Under an ETS, companies trade permits allowing the right to discharge emissions. Permit buyers effectively pay a charge for polluting, providing an economic incentive for reducing emissions. Mr Bowen today conceded the costs of switching to an ETS next year will be “significant”, as he again refused to rule out a cut to industry assistance programs. However the Treasurer rejected opposition claims the hole punched in the budget by fast-tracking to an ETS would be in the order of $6 billion. “We are responding to two things, we are responding to the change in the Australian economy, the rapid transition away from the mining boom and the need to stimulate non-mining investment,” Mr Bowen told ABC radio. “And we are responding to people’s concerns about cost of living – it is an acknowledgement families can do with cost of living relief,” he said. The Treasurer said the cost of making the move to an internationally-linked ETS sooner was “significant”, but rejected Coalition claims of a revenue shortfall $6 billion. “The opposition doesn’t know what it’s talking about, we’ll be putting out the Treasury figures, the Treasury figures make it very clear what the cost is and how it is going to be paid for,” he said. “It’s obviously a significant cost but it’s not what the opposition are suggesting.” Mr Bowen said the household compensation would remain, but refused to rule out changes to the industry assistance package. “Yes there are industry assistance measures that are predicated on a certain price, but I am not pre-empting what are going to do in the package,” Mr Bowen told Sky News. He warned the government had made “tough choices” to find savings to offset the revenue shortfall, but stressed Labor was committed to the schoolkids bonus. “The schoolkids bonus is a very important measure, it’s very important to the government and it will remain very important to the government,” he said. Mr Abbott said the ETS was “still a tax”. “He won’t admit it but you will keep the carbon tax under Kevin Rudd. If you vote for the Coalition, the carbon tax is gone, lock stock and barrel. Not rebadged, not renamed but abolished,” the Opposition Leader told the Nine Network. “The best thing to do is to get rid of it altogether. Mr Rudd vindicated everything we have been saying about the carbon tax,” Mr Abbott said. Greens leader Christine Milne, who negotiated the original carbon pricing package with the Gillard government, warned the Prime Minister against taking the axe to green schemes. “I am really concerned with where the government is going to get the money it’s a $4 billion to $5 billion hit on the budget,” Senator Milne said. “I want to see the clean technology fund maintained, the biodiversity fund maintained, low carbon communities – enabling people who live in those communities to be more energy efficient – I want to make sure the Climate Change Authority stays,” she said. “I am really concerned Labor will slash them, they’ve already taken the knife to the biodiversity fund this year,” Senator Milne said. Continue reading →