Australia's expensive carbon tax is hitting households and businesses in the hip pocket and costing jobs THE hyperbole in the latest of columnist Paul Syvret's serial attacks on Tony Abbot and anyone else who criticises the Labor Government's carbon tax (CM, 2/7) should not be allowed to mask the impact the carbon tax has had on Australian households, businesses and jobs. While he argues "the rest of the world is moving to price carbon," the fact remains no other country in the world has a carbon tax so expensive or so broad as Australia's. He says US President Barack Obama "just last week ... took America a big step down the road" but fails to mention Obama specifically ruled out a carbon tax, opting instead for direct action such as energy efficiency and cleaning up power stations. In saying Europe's carbon market is "well-established," he should also say the cost over its first five years was equivalent to $1 per person per year, compared with $500 per person in Australia. The carbon tax has added to domestic power prices. Electricity prices have gone up on average by 10 per cent and gas by 9 per cent, and the carbon tax was responsible for the highest-ever quarterly rise in electricity and gas prices, two thirds of which was due to the carbon tax. According to the Queensland Competition Authority, the renewable energy targets (RET) and the Solar Bonus Scheme add $169 to the average electricity bill. That is almost as much as the $190 added due to the carbon tax. As Queensland Energy Minister Mark McArdle has pointed out, the RET and the carbon tax now make up 18.9 per cent of the average $1900 annual electricity bill. In particular, the carbon tax and renewable energy charges have added to the cost of doing business in Australia and helped drive Australian businesses out the door - either overseas or simply out of business. Last Sunday night, Penrice Soda Holdings closed its soda ash manufacturing plant in Adelaide and, instead, will import soda ash from the United States, at a cost of 60 jobs. When making the announcement earlier this year of the planned closure, managing director Guy Roberts singled out the carbon tax for special mention, saying it had been the "icing on the cake" of the pressures the company was facing. He told journalists: "We are facing a carbon tax of $8 million in two years and five months' time, so I can't get capital to run our company. I have difficulty convincing anybody we'll have a viable business in two years and five months' time. A seafood processor in southeast Queensland complained to me recently that their annual electricity cost of over $200,000 includes a carbon tax of $24,000 and a renewable energy tariff of $17,000. Those "green" taxes are costing the company more than $40,000 which can't be passed on to customers. The necessary cost recovery won't come from using less power but simply employing one less staff person. And take the example of a hotel on the Gold Coast. Their July 2012 electricity bill without carbon tax and renewables would have been $44,000. Their bill with the extra charges was almost $65,000. The difference comprised carbon tax of $11,870 and renewables of $8614. Across a full year, that means an extra $245,000 minimum in carbon tax and renewables. In a competitive tourism market, they can't put up their room rates but they have to cut costs to maintain profitability. The only place they can easily cut costs is in staffing. Their extra $245,000 in carbon tax and renewables means four or five full-time jobs, gone. Multiply these examples by thousands and thousands of businesses across Australia, paying thousands and thousands of dollars in extra taxes on their electricity bills, and then imagine the number of jobs being sacrificed to try to keep their bottom line in the black. The aim is supposed to be more efficient use of power; the real result is more efficient use of labour. Companies are sacking people to try to reduce their operating costs to try to cover the increased cost of electricity. Ron Boswell is a Nationals Senator for Queensland.