Joint statement from Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Australian Industry Group; Jennifer Westacott, Chief Executive, Business Council of Australia; and Brendan Pearson, Chief Executive, Minerals Council of Australia

Three of Australia’s leading business groups are today calling on the Senate to swiftly repeal the carbon tax.

The groups have highlighted the unacceptable cost of delay in repealing what is one of the highest carbon taxes in the world.

In its two years of operation the carbon tax has added billions of dollars in costs, mainly through rising energy bills. No other carbon tax has pushed up energy prices to the same extent as Australia’s. The Senate should ensure this burden is removed as soon as possible.

Over 75,000 Australian businesses have incurred a substantial direct burden as a result of the range of carbon tax-related mechanisms, with many receiving no offset for the increased costs. The Senate should ensure this impost is removed.

Most businesses have been unable to pass their carbon tax-related costs on to customers. For small business especially, this has been a major burden that has reduced profitability, suppressed employment and added to already difficult conditions.

The groups are urging Senators, many of whom were elected on a platform of repealing the carbon tax, to honour their commitments to their constituents and remove the impost, which is making our key industries less competitive every day it stays in place.

Acting now to repeal the carbon tax would boost business confidence and should be part of a broader national push to reduce high energy costs.

Delaying repeal would not achieve anything for the environment, but would simply expose businesses to higher electricity prices and costs they cannot recover from 1 July 2014.

We require emissions reductions policies that meet the bipartisan emissions reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 at least cost; that ensure we maintain competitiveness; and that underpin innovation and long-term investment – particularly in the energy sector.

For further information contact:

Tony Melville, Director Public Affairs and Government Relations, Australian Industry Group, mobile 0419 190 347

Scott Thompson, Director, Media and Public Affairs, Business Council of Australia, telephone (03) 8664 2603, mobile 0403 241 128

Ben Mitchell, Director – Public Affairs, Minerals Council of Australia, (02) 6233 0600, mobile 0419 850 212