Former Liberal Leader Seeks Retention of Carbon Tax as PM Tony Abbott Reintroduces Bill to Dismantle the Levy
Like the Coalition government's proposed federal budget, more Australians are taking the side of the Opposition when it comes to the carbon tax, including some Liberal officials.
Read: More Australians Now Favour Carbon Tax
One of them is former Liberal leader John Hewson who said that the Abbott government, which is reintroducing legislation to repeal the Gillard government-backed carbon tax, must not shift the burden for reducing carbon dioxide emissions to taxpayers because the levy works, The Daily Telegraph reports.
"It is quite clear now that these laws are not a 'wrecking ball' or 'python squeeze' ... Since the carbon laws were enacted, Australia's pollution has been reduced by millions of tonnes and the economy has grown. Average households are not worse off as many feared they could be," said Hewson who joined the Stop the Dinosaurs campaign of the Climate Commission.
He considered it a tragedy if the Abbott government's alternative policy, the Direct Action, would shift the burden of pollution reduction from polluters to taxpayers at a time when there is also a budget crisis.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the Parliament on Monday that he has introduced again legislation that was previously rejected by Labor and Greens in the Senate to repeal the carbon tax. It is timed with the new batch of crossbench senators joining the body on July 1.
By doing so, he insisted that the country would remove 1,000 pages of rules and regulations and save businesses and individuals about $9 billion a year.
He also claimed households would save $550 a year if carbon pricing would not be passed on to them by businesses and promised electricity bills would go down by $200 a year and gas bills by $70.
However, the latest survey found that more Aussies are now supporting the carbon tax.
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