Carbon tax finally repealed

The carbon tax was given the axe today as senators voted for the scheme’s repeal.

The tax was given a lucky break last week after senators from the Palmer United Party (PUP) withdrew their support for the repeal, citing amendments which had not been included in the package submitted to the Senate.

But the eventual inclusion of the amendments, intended to ensure that energy producers pass on their savings to consumers and businesses, secured the vote of the PUP senators, who joined the Coalition government and other independent crossbenchers in scrapping the carbon tax by 39 votes to 32.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said households will benefit on average by $550 a year from the repeal, with gas prices to fall by 7% and electricity prices by 9%. PUP Leader Clive Palmer has meanwhile said that his senators will move to set up the framework of an emissions trading scheme, but this will come into effect only when Australia’s major trading partners have such a scheme in place.

The Australian Greens and Labor parties have already announced their intention to restore what they believe to be genuine action on climate change. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has confirmed that Labor will go into the 2016 election with the aim of bringing back an emissions trading scheme, while Greens Leader Christine Milne claims her party will “lead the campaign to make the big polluters pay for global warming”.

“Tony Abbott has delivered a massive blow to jobs, a massive blow to clean solar and wind energy, and a massive blow to our kids and grandkids who will live on a planet permanently changed by global warming,” Milne said of today’s decision.

“Australians stand exposed to more extreme fires, floods, storms, and they risk losing their jobs and livelihoods because of global warming. But Tony Abbott has just torn down the cheapest and most effective way for Australia to reduce our pollution.

“Everyone from our leading scientists, to expert economists and insurers keep telling us that the longer we take to bring down pollution, the greater the costs will be in lives, jobs and precious natural places lost.”

Such experts have expressed their thoughts on today’s news, with little to be found in favour of the scheme’s repeal. Dr Roger Dargaville, a senior energy analyst at the Melbourne Energy Institute, noted that since 2012, emissions from the National Electricity Market have reduced from 95 to 85 megatonnes of CO₂ per year.

“The government’s replacement strategy, Direct Action, will fail to reduce emissions as it fails to penalise the largest emitters,” said Dr Dargaville. “Also, Direct Action risks not gaining approval in the Senate as it is unlikely to get the support of PUP senators.”

Professor Michael Raupach, director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, said in order to limit warming to 2°C and restrict extreme weather events, “global greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut by around 60% by 2050 (80% for Australia)”. Thus, the Abbott government’s aim of a 5% emissions reduction by 2020 is inadequate.

Dr Elizabeth Hanna, convenor of the Adaptation Research Network for Human Health, added that carbon emissions are having a negative impact on people as well as the planet.

“Burning of fossil fuels is bad,” she said. “Bad for the air we breathe, and bad for the climate by dealing a death blow to crops, livestock, coastal cities, water security; in fact, everything we need to survive and thrive.

“Australia, as one of the world’s top emitters per capita, urgently needs a carbon tax that gently drives us away from the carbon-spewing fuel sources.

“Talk of costs to families and industry is, quite frankly, puerile. Unfettered carbon release is already costing us far more, and future costs and losses will be astronomical.”

Milne concluded that she will be “taking a personal role in mobilising all Australians who care about global warming”.

“My message to everyone who cares about global warming is to say: yes, this is a massive blow, but we don’t have time to despair,” she said. “The campaign to restore action on global warming starts now.”