Tax gains tiny cut in emissions

LABOR’s $ 6 billion carbon tax reduced Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by just 0.1 per cent.

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott ratchets up the pressure on Labor leader Bill Shorten to axe the carbon tax by Christmas, the new figures will be released this week by Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

They reveal that the introduction of the carbon tax coincided with a reduction of greenhouse gases of about 300,000 tonnes in the first full financial year of operation.

While the carbon tax is $23 a tonne, the effective cost of the emissions reduction on the basis of revenue raised is $21,000 a tonne.

The official register of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will reveal that in the financial year before the carbon tax was introduced, Australia produced 546.2 million tonnes of emissions.

After the carbon tax was introduced, the emissions dropped to just 545.9 million tonnes.

These figures do not include fuels and refrigerants.

Climate Change Minister Greg Hunt said the best Christmas present Labor could give voters was axing the carbon tax.

‘‘ Bill Shorten simply refuses to accept the outcome of the election,’’ Mr Hunt said.

‘‘He doesn’t care about rising power bills or the will of the Australian people.

‘‘As we enter the final parliamentary sitting week of the year, Bill Shorten needs to get out of the way and allow the Government to scrap the carbon tax.

‘‘It’s an economy-wide electricity tax that causes a lot of pain but doesn’t clean up the environment.’’

Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler said Labor supported axing the carbon tax but not the Coalition’s alternative.

‘‘The Coalition’s policy is a dressed-up slush fund to pay polluters that is supported by no one.’’