Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, it was confirmed at estimates that the industry department is doing a range of work on carbon tax and its impact on industry. In that context can you confirm the carbon tax will only be applied to fewer than 1,000 emitters? Can you guarantee it will not be applied to other businesses or other industries? On what basis is the government providing 52 per cent compensation to households and 46 per cent to industry under the carbon tax? Given that the CPRS as it started was supposed to provide only around 41 per cent to households, how much of a decline in compensation from that scheme would a level of 46 per cent represent for Australian industry? Isn't this just purely a front for an exercise in wealth redistribution? What detail can you provide industry about the proportion by which the tax will rise and what the level of compensation change will be beyond year 1? Has the government set a ceiling price beyond which the carbon tax will not escalate? If so, what is that?

Could you also please inform the House if either of these two statements is wrong. The first one is that every dollar that is raised by the payment of a carbon price by the companies that are emitting large amounts of pollution will be used towards supporting households. The second comment is that the carbon plan which we are now developing will involve additional support for manufacturing. Has the government requested briefings from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research or any other government agency about the steel industry's legal action against the EU in that jurisdiction over the implementation of its ETS? If so, which agencies and on what dates? Has any consideration being given to the implications for Australia? If so, what are these implications?

What consultation and work has the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and the government more generally done on border tariff arrangements for the carbon tax? Are there any considerations for the introduction of border tariffs or any like actions with regard to the introduction of a carbon tax?

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