The productivity and competitiveness of Northern Australia is in danger. This week the details of the carbon tax were announced and it is clear that the Australian economy will suffer. As we’ve said before, the tax will destroy the resource sector with higher electricity costs and make Australia a second rate destination for investment.
Rather than discouraging investment through new taxes, Australia needs to offer policies that will attract much needed infrastructure projects to the North. A Special Economic Zone with low taxes and reduced red tape would do much to reassure potential investors about Australia.
The only winners from the carbon tax will be international competitors who are not subject to these government interventions. This Australian article shows that ”the next generation of a Pilbara, Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Bower Basin won’t be found here in Australia, but increasingly in Africa, Central Asia and South America.”
As miners move offshore, Anglo American’s Mettalurgical Coal business chief executive Seamus French has calculated that the carbon tax will eliminate 40,000 direct jobs and 100,000 contractors, as well as costing the coal industry $13 billion over the next decade. Read more in the Central Queensland News.
IPA research fellow Tim Wilson has done the calculations, and household electricity costs will go up by $150 a year under the $23 starting price. Tim has also rightly pointed out that “the impact of this carbon tax will disproportionately affect Northern Australia which relies on energy intensive industries more than the rest of Australia”. Read Tim’s piece here.
Australia’s best known geologist, Professor Ian Plimer & IPA Executive Director, John Roskam are visiting Mount Isa and Cloncurry this month to speak at our FREE Information Sessions.
Mount Isa, 19 July 2011
6.30pm
Mt Isa Civic Centre
23 West St
Cloncurry, 20 July 2011
5.30pm
Cloncurry Shire Hall
Scarr St
If you’d like to know more please contact the IPA on (03) 9600 4744 or contact the Director of the project, Hugh Tobin at htobin@ipa.org.au.
Also visit our website: http://anewnorth.ipa.org.au.
As always please feel free to tell me your vision for a new North at jroskam@ipa.org.au.