Today Bill Shorten has announced another plan for higher electricity prices.
He’s picked a target but hasn’t had the courage to outline the costs. He hasn’t done the work to detail the mechanism.
Where is the ALP plan and mechanism? Where is the ALP modelling? After two years they have no plan and no modelling.
Last time Labor introduced a carbon tax we saw electricity prices increase by 10 per cent.
Labor are once again aligning themselves with the Climate Change Authority target. Treasury modelling of this shows a 78 per cent increase in wholesale electricity prices by 2030.
Today we see more headline grabbing from Bill Shorten with no actual substance behind yet another flimsy ‘announcement’.
Bill Shorten is grandstanding with a high target but Labor won’t say how they’ll achieve it except by bringing back the carbon tax, even if he calls it an Emissions Trading Scheme.
If Labor wants to use the CCA target then they should use the modelling of the CCA target – that they commissioned while in government. But of course they won’t because the numbers are too shocking.
Treasury modelling prepared for the CCA report shows that Labor’s carbon tax would result in a cumulative loss to Australia’s GDP of approximately $600 billion by 2030.
This number was again confirmed as accurate by the Department of Environment on 14 August 20151.
Mr Shorten must answer these questions:
• Why does he reject Treasury’s modelling of a $600 billion hit to the economy?
• How much will his plan cost?
• How much will electricity prices rise for Australian families and business?
• What is his mechanism?
Labor won’t answer these questions because they have don’t have any alternatives to a carbon tax. Their only policy is for higher electricity prices.
Our target of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 is strong, credible and achievable. We will play a constructive role at global talks in Paris.
We are playing our part without increasing electricity prices for Australian families.
We are meeting our targets, we are doing it with policies that are working and we have reduced electricity prices by the highest amount on record.
By contrast, the single most telling fact in Mr Shorten’s speech is that he won’t even tell Australians what his secret 2025 target will be until after the election.
1 http://environment.gov.au/news/2015/08/14/clarification-statement-climate-change-authority
(ENDS)