Debate on Carbon Tax’s Constitutionality Rages On
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has expressed his support on the planned legal challenges aired by mining billionaire Clive Palmer against the upcoming carbon pricing scheme that is set to take effect July this year.
In an interview with Fairfax, Abbott opined that the Western Australia mining mogul may have valid legal grounds to contest the imposition of the carbon tax laws, which Palmer said were unconstitutional citing the legal feedbacks that he had gathered.
Abbott said Palmer's announced plea before the Australian High Court carries legal arguments that the court may seriously consider.
For one, "the Commonwealth can't tax the states ... and this is going to be a tax that's paid by state governments," Abbott argued.
"I certainly think that there are some constitutional issues," the Liberal leader stressed during his interview.
Palmer has been vocal against tax measures coming from the federal government and is one of the leading forces against the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been trying to sell before the Parliament.
The Parliament has yet to approve the mining tax but gave its green light on the carbon tax November last year, prompting Palmer to issue threats that he would raise legal questions against the laws.
On Wednesday, Palmer echoed his intention to challenge the tax measures but clarified that his actions were not meant to throw his weight around and try to influence the national policies of the government, as claimed earlier by Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Swan wrote in an essay that Palmer, along with the likes of Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, were explicitly using their fortunes to force their say on the government, setting off a likely full-blown confrontation between the Labor-led government and the mining magnates.
And Palmer may be gradually attracting the conflict that he worked for as Labor ministers took the offensive stance, with Climate Change Minister Greg Combet calling the billionaire's plan as mere exercise of one of Palmer's professed hobbies - litigation.
"I think this is another foray by Mr Palmer who's got more money than sense really ... He seems to be exercising all of the wealth that he's acquired out of the resources boom and elsewhere just to pay lawyers," Combet was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying on Thursday.
Combet insisted too that the government has a strong case and the carbon tax "legislation relies on a number of powers under the constitution."
Also, the Australian Green Party, one of the major proponents of the tax measures, laughed off the legal case that Palmer plans against the carbon tax, insisting that the laws were not contradictory to the constitution.
"The court will deal with it appropriately and it'll spread his wealth a little more ... and I've got no doubt that the High Court recognises the power of this parliament over that of Mr Palmer," Greens leader Bob Brown said.