2011-02-26 09:46

CANBERRA - Australia's coal industry on Saturday said that mines will close and jobs will be lost if it does not get appropriate government assistance under a carbon tax.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's multi-party climate change committee announced that the carbon price scheme will be rolled out from July 2012 for three to five years before moving to an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The government has not yet outlined how much compensation exposed industries will receive but the Greens have previously pushed for coal to be excluded in compensation.

Greens Senator Christine Milne said rent seeking by coal miners should not be tolerated.

"They made their profits in an industrial age," she told reporters in Canberra, adding "we are now moving to a low-carbon economy."

According to Ralph Hillman from the Coal Association, the industry would struggle if that happens under the new scheme.

"It may indeed have some impact on jobs and mine closures right up front," he told ABC News on Saturday.

"But the real issue is, over time the investment will swing to other countries and that will be lost opportunities and lost jobs for Australia," he noted.

Hillman added it would not reduce global emissions as they will simply be produced elsewhere.

Meanwhile, new figures released by the Department of Climate Change on Friday showed Australia's biggest energy companies would be put out of business if they had to pay the world price for carbon emissions under a carbon tax without compensation.

The giant New South Wales power company Macquarie Generation, Australia's biggest emitter, would face a bill of $613 million if it had to pay the $26 a ton the previous Kevin Rudd government's emissions trading scheme was based on.

The tax bill would be more than three times the company's latest profit of $196 million, while the second ranked Delta Electricity would face a bill of $538 million or almost 10 times its last full-year profit.

With the Greens holding balance of power in the Parliament, Milne also insisted the transport sector should be included in any carbon pricing regime.

"Including transport in the carbon tax regime is expected to raise petrol prices at a time when rising oil prices, sparked by the instability in the Middle East, are already driving prices higher and adding to cost of living concerns,"The Australian newspaper reported on Saturday.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched attack on the carbon tax plan, saying that it is an assault on the Australian people's standard of living.

He said the carbon tax meant people would pay $300 more a year on their electricity bills and 6.5 US cents a liter extra for petrol, which would add about $3 to the cost of a tank of petrol.

New South Wales Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell also expressed his opposition to the carbon pricing decision, vowing to travel to Canberra to lodge a protest against the carbon tax if he won the state election.