Industry welcomes carbon tax repeal

The Australian business community has welcomed the abolition of the carbon tax.

“Beyond the repeal of the carbon tax itself, industry welcomes revisions made to price pass-through provisions after strong industry feedback. These should protect a wide range of businesses from unnecessary compliance burdens,” said Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Innes Willox today. 

“The amendments proposed last week would have inadvertently required thousands of businesses to produce carbon tax repeal substantiation statements, at considerable cost in staff time and money, under threat of heavy sanctions. That would have hit everyone from caravan parks and shopping centres to car dealers and whitegoods suppliers.

“Ai Group raised these concerns with the government, the Opposition and the crossbench as soon as the issues became apparent.  We have continued to work with all sides of politics to resolve these problems and found a cooperative and constructive response.

“Based on the revised amendments, the Minister’s second reading speech and conversations with members and other stakeholders, we do not expect that the reporting and substantiation provisions passed today will apply to any businesses other than genuine electricity and gas retailers, electricity producers large enough to sell directly to the wholesale market and bulk importers of synthetic greenhouse gases.

“We will look to the ACCC to take a reasonable and responsible stance in interpreting the new legislation and its own role in enforcing it. Industry expects that the ACCC will focus on a small number of highly relevant businesses.”