Australia is now poised to finally implement a carbon pricing regime, as Parliament has passed the controversial bill after more than a decade of debate.

“A significant day for all Australians,” Prime Minister Julia Gillard hailed Wednesday’s decision by the lower house of Parliament to approve the carbon tax bill.

The bill is bound to vastly improve the green jobs market in Australia, advocates say.

GreenCollar Talent’s Jan Rieche explains: “Companies affected by the legislation will see an advantage to employ people to meet compliance and reduce emissions. Thanks to improved planning security, we can expect carbon abatement and energy efficiency projects to be approved along with increased R&D spending.”

Rieche added: “We expect more green jobs in carbon offset generating projects, such as forestry and soil carbon. It’s an exciting time - and one of opportunity too.”

This view is backed up by Tim Wilson, director of the Institute of Public Affairs, who believes that the biggest winner from the bill will be the green jobs sector. "Basically this whole carbon tax-emissions trading scheme is an injection of a green currency," he said.

Under the new tax, the new Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be given $10 billion to manage and invest in the deployment of clean energy alternatives. Invested correctly, it should spark a boom for all green jobs in Australia.

Green collar jobs currently make up around 1.5 per cent of all jobs advertised in Australia. Peter Hooper, GreenCollar Talent’s managing director, hailed the passage.

“Now is the time to for us to keep our focus and maintain our efforts to continue supplying only the best available talent to the renewable energy, carbon and sustainability markets," he said. “This is something which has been long-awaited and we are more than ready for the challenge.”