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04/11
Australia Needs Carbon Tax to Protect Nation’s Prosperity, Jobs, Swan Says
Australia needs to forge ahead with a carbon tax to protect its prosperity, Treasurer Wayne Swan said as labor unions threatened to oppose the government’s plan over concerns it will cost jobs.
“These big reforms are always hard fought, they’re always difficult and they’re always contested,” Swan said in an interview with Sky Television. “Moving to price carbon is to make sure we do protect the prosperity and the jobs of the future.”
The steel industry should be given complete exemption from a carbon tax, Paul Howes the national secretary for the Australian Workers Union, said on April 15, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Howes also demanded compensation for the aluminum, cement and glass industries. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union supported the AWU, the county’s biggest union, the newspaper said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor party wants to set a price on carbon emissions from July 2012 in preparation for a trading system that could begin as early as 2015. Companies including BlueScope Steel Ltd., Rio Tinto Group and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. have called for changes to the plan and warned of job losses.
“I’m not surprised by the vigor that we’ve seen in the debate at the moment,” Swan said today. “There’s no doubt that trade-exposed industries do deserve assistance and we’re engaged with that sector in discussions.”
Fifty-one percent of 1,016 people polled on March 23-27 opposed Gillard’s plan and 34 percent support it, according to an Essential Media survey. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Lost Majority Gillard’s Labor Party lost its majority at the August 2010 national election, the closest ballot in 70 years, and relies on the support of four non-party lawmakers to pass legislation.
Australia’s economy is “fundamentally strong” in a still- fragile global economy recovering from the financial crisis, Swan said during the interview, speaking from a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Washington.
While parts of the Australian economy such as the retail and tourism industries are struggling with the strong Australian dollar, the government remains “determined” to return to a budget surplus by 2013-14, helped by firm commodity prices and a robust investment pipeline, Swan said.
Australia’s dollar reached $1.0584 on April 8, the strongest since it was freely floated in 1983.
Growth will be reduced as a result of record flooding in Queensland this year as well as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Swan said.
The economy may lose as much as much as 0.75 percent of growth during the current 2010-11 financial year, he told CNBC April 14.