Australians would pay more for electricity while jobs and investment would be exported offshore under Labor's plan for carbon taxes in Australia.
The emissions trading plan released by the Labor states and territories would impose significant costs on the Australian economy and have zero impact on global emissions and climate change. It also exposes Mr Beazley's weasel words about the impact on Australian families of his commitment to cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent compared with year 2000 levels by 2050.
All Australians will lose under a scheme that would increase electricity prices from 2010 and eventually devastate vital export industries such as coal.
The coal industry employs more than 30,000 Australians, including 18,300 in Queensland. Employment in Queensland's coal industry rose by a massive 19 per cent in the year to March 2006.
If the Queensland Premier Mr Beattie is serious about securing his State's economic future, he must unconditionally repudiate this emissions trading plan and Mr Beazley's hidden plan for a carbon tax.
The notion that a $12-$14 carbon tax would have only a 'small' impact on the Australian economy is simply wrong. The report itself shows that Australian households would automatically face higher annual electricity bills from 2010. One of its scenarios would see coal-fired power generation reduced by 37 per cent over the period 2010-30. Energy-exporting states such as Western Australia and Queensland would be especially hard hit by this scheme.
Businesses hit by a new carbon tax would be forced to increase prices for consumers. Higher prices would reduce demand and depress investment in industries which many thousands of Australians rely on for their jobs and livelihoods. And Australian export industries facing this tax would be disadvantaged compared with their international competitors.
The costs to the Australian economy are also likely to be significantly greater than those reported due to transactions costs associated with this complex, patchwork scheme.
We already know that New Zealand was forced to abandon plans to introduce a carbon tax of about $NZ15 due to concerns over the potential adverse effects on its economy.
The proposal from the Labor State Governments is merely a warm-up act for Federal Labor's draconian policy which would see Australia sign up to a European-style carbon tax system without any demonstrable impact on climate change.
Unlike the economies of Western Europe, Australia is a physically-large country with an enormous comparative advantage as an energy exporter.
The impact on the Australian economy of where both Federal and State Labor want to go has been spelled out in detail by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE).
It found that a 50 per cent cut in Australia's 1990 emissions level by 2050 would lead to a 10.7 per cent fall in GDP, a 20.8 per cent fall in real wages and a carbon price equivalent to a doubling of petrol prices.
Under this scenario, the cost of carbon would translate into a staggering rise in electricity and gas prices.
ABARE concluded that: 'Unilateral action to achieve deep cuts in Australia's emissions is estimated to cost the Australian economy significantly more than not undertaking that action and offers no perceptible additional benefits to the rest of the world - neither in economic terms nor in terms of global environmental benefits'.
Labor's policies still offer no solution to the fundamental flaw of the Kyoto climate change framework, namely high-emitting developing countries not subject to binding emissions-reduction targets.
The Victorian Government's own consultants on this issue - The Allen Consulting Group - have stated that: 'Any large-scale unilateral action by Australia would constitute bad policy in that it would impose significant costs on the community while having a negligible impact on climate change'.
Through initiatives such as our Low Emissions Technology Fund, the Australian Government is pursuing a technology-driven strategy to combat growth in greenhouse emissions. This approach does not sacrifice Australian jobs, investment and export income in advance of an effective global response to climate change. In contrast, Labor simply does not understand the basic realities of Australia's national interest.