SYDNEY (AP) — The ruling Labor Party's probable collapse in Australia's next election is largely the consequence of its qualified success in the last one three years ago. To form the coalition she needed to stay in power, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard reneged on a promise and agreed to place a carbon tax on major polluters.
On Saturday, the bill for that bargain comes due. Voters have never stopped hating the tax and its effect on their electric bills. Longtime Labor Party supporters — even people who have helped cut pollution by installing solar panels at home — have flocked to the opposition.
"Whoever gets rid of it will get my vote," said Mark Keene, a 54-year-old maintenance worker from Sydney who, for the first time in his life, won't be voting for Labor.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has declared the election a "referendum on the carbon tax" — a sure sign of confidence that most voters remain staunchly against it, with many believing that companies forced to pay the tax are simply passing the cost onto consumers.
Its unpopularity has already produced the downfall of Gillard, who lost her job to Kevin Rudd in a June vote of party lawmakers desperate to avoid a crushing election loss that could send them into the political wilderness for a decade. But Labor candidates for Parliament continue to trail badly in opinion polls.
The tax on big polluters such as power plants and factories has been in place since July 2012. It started at 23 Australian dollars ($21) per metric ton of carbon dioxide produced and has since risen to AU$24.15 per metric ton.
The government estimated the tax would cost the average person less than AU$10 per week, but three months after it took effect, most Australians surveyed by policy think-tank Per Capita said it was costing them more than twice that much. But they also expressed confusion, with most blaming the tax for higher gas prices even though it is not levied on motor fuel purchases. The poll was a representative online survey of 1,422 people and has a 2.6 percent margin of error.
Lynne Chester, a Sydney University energy researcher, said that in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, household electricity prices have risen more than 110 percent from July 2007 to June 2013. But she said only about 9 percentage points of that increase is attributable to the carbon tax; increased charges for power transmission and distribution account for the rest.
Most Australians, but not the wealthy, get government compensation for higher electricity prices.
The carbon tax is one reason Sydney resident Geoff Hamment, who normally votes for Labor, is supporting the conservatives this time around. Hamment said he's seen his household electricity bills go "through the roof" since the tax was introduced.
"I don't like it," he said. "I think us paying so much is just pointless when you have countries like China churning it out."
Hamment spent AU$8,000 to install solar panels and a gas hot-water heater, and has trained his two children to turn the lights off whenever possible. Several of his retired friends who are surviving on pensions have had it much worse, and have struggled to cope with the higher costs.
"They're sitting at home in the cold because they're afraid of the power bills," he said.
Thank you for sharing! This article is informative and very helpful. Good job!
ReplyDelete