Tax ‘a threat to city’

JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A carbon tax of $20 a tonne would cost key Geelong employers more than $232 million a year, according to a Federal Government report.
The figures prompted the city’s chamber of commerce to warn Geelong would be a “loser” under the tax without safeguards for manufacturers.
The National Greenhouse and Energy Report revealed annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from Australia’s main emitters as Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced plans to implement a carbon tax in 2012.
The price has yet to be set but $20 a tonne has been proposed at the lower end of the scale.
According to the report, Alcoa emitted 6,757,567 tonnes of CO2 across Australia in 2009/2010, which would incur a carbon tax bill of $135 million at $20 a tonne.
Boral, parent company of Waurn Ponds’ Blue Circle Southern Cement, would pay $46.5 million.
Shell, with emissions of 1,442,496 tonnes, would pay $28.8 million.
Incitec Pivot, with Geelong hosting one of four Victorian plants, would be taxed $19.7 million.
Graincorp would pay just over $1 million and Ford $676,840.
Geelong Chamber of Commerce president Jim Walsh said the Gillard Government carbon tax backflip was disappointing.
“The devil will be in the detail but Geelong does stand to be a loser if the detail doesn’t contain sufficient safeguards for local manufacturers,” he said.
“These are very significant numbers and have the potential to render local operations globally uncompetitive in a low-tariff environment and being trade exposed, such a tax places us at a disadvantage that can jeopardise local activities.”
Incitec Pivot’s Stewart Murrihy said the company was waiting for carbon tax details.
“Because fertiliser is priced on import parity pricing, unless there are offsets in that area it will mean our factories will be competing with imports from the Middle East or Asia. That’s not necessarily good from a local employment point of view because of the extra taxes we would bear that our competitors won’t.”
Alcoa head of climate strategy Tim McAuliffe said the industry would accept a carbon tax if the “details were right”.
Otherwise the industry would be at a “substantial international competitiveness disadvantage” that would drive businesses offshore to countries with no emissions trading, he said.