Carbon tax repealed by Senate at the third attempt

Jared Owens
JULY 17, 2014
THE AUSTRALIAN
THE carbon tax has been repealed, fulfilling Tony Abbott’s “pledge in blood” to abolish the landmark Gillard government scheme.
The Senate passed the government’s amended carbon tax repeal bills by a margin of 39 votes to 32 at 11.14am, with only the Labor Party and the Greens opposing their passage into law.
It was the Senate’s third attempt to pass the repeal legislation.
The vote was held as Bill Shorten gave a clear pledge to take a new carbon pricing mechanism to the next federal election, due in 2016, in the form of an emissions trading scheme.
The Liberal Party, National Party, Palmer United Party, Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir, Liberal Democratic Party’s David Leyonhjelm, Family First Party’s Bob Day and Democratic Labour Party’s John Madigan voted for the repeal.
Government senators applauded the bills’ passage as Senate president Stephen Parry reported the result of the vote.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon was absent from the chamber, having fallen ill yesterday.
The Prime Minister, in a message emailed to Liberal Party supporters, said the repeal was “great news for Australian families and for our nation’s small businesses”.
But Labor said the repeal had “made Australia the first country to reverse action on climate change”, while Greens leader Christine Milne said the government’s victory represented “intergenerational theft”.
The debate over the tax was dragged out despite the Senate agreeing to extend its sitting hours to pass a raft of government bills including the Qantas Sale Act, the mining tax repeal and the government’s asset recycling plan.
The Senate now faces sitting at the weekend and returning every day for 14 hours after tomorrow until all the bills are dealt with. Parliament was due to rise tonight for a five-week break.
The Prime Minister, when the carbon price was imposed in 2011, said as opposition leader: “I am giving you the most definite commitment any politician can give that this tax will go. This is a pledge in blood this tax will go.”
Mr Shorten, asked this morning if he would campaign at the next election to introduce a carbon price by way of an ETS, told ABC Radio: “Yes.”
“We’ll further work on our policies before the election, but what I can promise all those Australians, including people listening to this show, is that the Labor Party will be true to our principles about tackling climate change,” the Opposition Leader said.
“Labor will go back to basics. We believe climate change is real, we want to act and we will do so in a way which ensures Australia’s competitive with the world.”
The carbon tax, if it had not been repealed, would have automatically transitioned to an emissions trading scheme from July next year.
When the bill reached the formality of a final, third-reading vote, Senator Milne made a surprise last-ditch plea to other senators to retain the carbon price.
“The future demands people who face the challenges oppose (this) now,” Senator Milne said.
Queensland Coalition senator Ian Macdonald doubted the existence of climate change, noting recent unseasonable warmth in Brisbane, but kept “an open mind”.
Opposition environment parliamentary secretary Lisa Singh stressed Labor’s support for the science of climate change and the economic argument in favour of emissions trading.
“We are voting for our future, the future of our children,” she said.
The Prime Minister hailed today’s vote, declaring: “Scrapping the carbon tax is a foundation of the government’s economic action strategy.
“Scrapping the carbon tax will save the average family $550 a year. You’ll see the benefits in coming power bills.
“Scrapping the carbon tax will also take a cost burden off Australian businesses – this will make it easier for them to compete and create more jobs.”
Labor attacked the repeal.
“The Abbott Government is determined to hurt Australians now with its unfair Budget and is determined to hurt future generations by refusing to tackle climate change,” Mr Shorten and environment spokesman Mark Butler said in a joint statement.
“Australia could have gone to the Paris conference next year with an integrated, effective emissions trading scheme, but Tony Abbott has embarrassed Australians and instead we attend that conference as the only country to reverse its climate action.
“Tony Abbott will do anything to try and ignore the science of climate change. It’s clear that he still thinks it is – in his own words – ‘absolute crap’.”
Senator Milne said history would judge Mr Abbott “harshly for his denial of global warming and his undermining of Australia’s effort to address it”.
“The repeal of the price on pollution is intergenerational theft. 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.”
Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie said: “This was one of the things that we promised the Australian people, and I think it’s worked out well.
“That’s one down for this week, and we want the MRRT (minerals resource rent tax) to follow as soon as possible, and that will be a good week’s work for us.”
The PUP is stalling the MRRT repeal, demanding the govenrment retain welfare spending linked to the tax.
The Climate Institute’s chief executive, John Connor, said the repeal was “a historic act of irresponsibility and recklessness”.
“What we are left with as potential replacement policy rests on three wobbly legs – a government fund subject to an annual budgetary arm wrestle, uncertain non-binding limits on some company emissions, and a renewable energy target under assault,” Mr Connor said of the Coalition’s direct action policy.
Additional reporting: Sid Maher