Chapter 6
Community understanding of the carbon tax reforms
Introduction
6.1
This chapter addresses the community's understanding of the carbon tax.
6.2
It details the speed with which the government has introduced the policy
and the money it has spent on advertising and public education campaigns. It also
examines the concern about this raised by the Joint Select Committee on
Australia's Clean Energy Future legislation (the Joint Committee), which
attributes the community's lack of awareness of the details of the tax to the
media's coverage of the debate.
Undue haste
6.3
As detailed extensively in the Interim Report of this committee, The
Carbon Tax: Economic pain for no environmental gain (the Interim Report),
the process surrounding the development of the government's carbon tax package
was characterised by a lack of detail, transparency and unnecessary haste.
6.4
Following a commitment to the Australian people prior to the 2010
federal election that there would be no carbon tax, as part of its deal with
the independents to form government, the Gillard Government announced the
establishment of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee (MPCCC) to explore
how Australia would introduce a carbon tax.[1]
Less than six months later, on 24 February 2011, the MPCCC released its report
and the government announced that it would move to introduce a carbon tax to
commence on 1 July 2012.[2]
6.5
At the time of announcing that the proposed carbon tax would be
introduced effective from 1 July 2012, the government did not provide any of
the detail of the tax to the public. It was not until 10 July 2011 that the key
features of the proposed tax were announced. This was followed by the release
of some of the draft legislation outlining the scheme for public consultation on
28 July 2011, less than 12 months before its proposed commencement. The public
was then given just over three weeks to provide comment on the 19 bills comprising
the Clean Energy Future legislative package. The legislation to establish the
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) was not a part of this package –
that legislation, the two ARENA Bills, were only introduced into the House of
Representatives on 12 October 2011.[3]
The provisions of the two bills have been referred to the Senate Environment
and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 7 November
2011.[4]
The committee notes that the legislation to establish the Clean Energy Finance
Corporation, which will invest $10 billion in businesses that are seeking funds
to 'get innovative clean energy proposals and technologies off the ground'[5]
and will invest in the transformation of existing manufacturing businesses, has
not yet been introduced into parliament. Nor has an exposure draft of the bill
been released for public comment.
6.6
The Clean Energy Future legislative package was introduced into the
House of Representatives on 13 September 2011. The 19 bills were then referred
for inquiry following the establishment of the Joint Committee.[6]
6.7
In its report to the Parliament, the government, through the Joint
Committee, claims that the lack of awareness within the community is due to the
media's coverage of the matter:
Given the highly contested nature of the policy debate, this
is, to some extent, understandable, as many Australians have only heard about
the general policy issue, as set out in news media reports and advertisements
which have tended to focus on specific elements of the bills, but not the
totality of issues. While this is not unusual in the development and
implementation of public policy, it is also a matter of concern, given the
intended commencement of the mechanism on 1 July 2012.[7]
6.8
Such a claim, however, does not acknowledge that just 422 days separated
the government's assertion that there would be no carbon tax, and the passage
of the Gillard Government's Clean Energy Future legislative package through the
House of Representatives.
6.9
It is also noted that in its report the Joint Committee set out (at
Appendix D) the specific changes to the legislation that were made following
the consultation on the exposure draft. In respect of the more broader concerns
raised by submitters to their inquiry however, the Joint Committee stated:
The committee acknowledges that some businesses have concerns
about the policies implemented by the legislation. However, these issues
reflect a disagreement with the underlying policy, which was announced on 10
July 2011, rather than the drafting of the bills, and are therefore beyond the
scope of the committee’s consideration.[8]
6.10
The Joint Committee's report noted that the Commonwealth Parliament,
since 1992, had completed 35 committee inquiries into how to respond to climate
change (excluding the Joint Committee's inquiry into the clean energy future
legislative package).[9]
However, after all of those parliamentary inquiries and related debates
informing community attitudes over many years, it is important to note that
community opinion is strongly against the introduction of a carbon tax or an
emissions trading scheme in Australia. The community understands that a price
on carbon in Australia outside an appropriately comprehensive global agreement
to price emissions will be all economic pain for Australia for no global
environmental gain. Moreover, the Australian community was entitled to expect
that the Prime Minister had reached the same conclusion as they had given her
emphatic pre-election promise that there would be no carbon tax under the
government she leads. After all, many of those inquiries, in particular those
during the 42nd Parliament, had identified the many flaws of a
carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme as proposed by the government in the
absence of an appropriately comprehensive global agreement to price emissions.
Committee comment
6.11
The committee takes the view that the legislative design process that
occurs following the policy development stage should not be rushed. How a
policy is translated into legislation requires much consideration and
discussion and during that process consideration should be given to concerns
raised with the underlying policy rationale. This cannot occur when the public
and key stakeholders are not given adequate time to consider the detail of the
legislation that is proposed to implement the government's scheme.
Government advertising and promotion
6.12
Similarly, the government's claims that the lack of community
understanding of the Clean Energy legislative package is due to the media's
coverage of the issue does not recognise the government's extensive efforts to
advise the community of the changes through the millions of dollars spent
advertising the carbon tax initiative.
6.13
On 10 February 2011, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy
Efficiency, the Hon. Greg Combet AM MP, announced the establishment of the Climate
Change Commission. According to the Minister, the purpose of the Commission is
to 'provide expert advice and information to the Australian community on
climate change'.[10]
6.14
The Climate Commission is lead by Professor Tim Flannery.[11]
Its establishment was an election commitment announced in July 2010. The
Government has set funding at $6.5 million (over four years).[12]
6.15
In addition to referring to grants which appear to have been paid to
environmental groups supportive of the government's policy, The Australian recently
reported that a special 'propaganda' unit was established on 4 July 2011,
before the government even announced the details of its carbon tax plan, to
sell the tax.[13]
The ten-person carbon price implementation team was quietly
formed on July 4 – five days before details of the carbon pricing scheme were
revealed.
It came to light this week in a one-line entry in documents
presented to a Senate committee. The document, revealed by The Australian
Online yesterday, said five staff had been appointed to the team, which is
based in an office next to that of Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.
Further documents reveal another five staffers have been
assigned to the unit from the offices of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and
other senior ministers.
The unit, headed by a senior staffer from Julia Gillard's
office, will cost taxpayers more than $1 million a year.
Its senior adviser-level head earns up to $170,000 a year,
while the nine adviser-level staffers draw salaries of up to $115,000.
The Prime Minister defended the establishment of the unit
yesterday, saying it would better inform the public of the details of her
carbon tax. "We've been bringing information to people about carbon
pricing and we will continue to do so," she said.
...
A spokesman for Mr Combet said: "The carbon policy
implementation team was established to provide information in support of the
implementation of the carbon price."[14]
6.16
On 16 July 2011, Minister Combet, released a media statement detailing
that a national advertising campaign to educate the community about the Clean
Energy Future package would commence on Sunday, 17 July 2011.[15]
In that statement, the Minister detailed that the government had committed $12
million to the campaign, which would provide information on what the
government's plan would mean for households, businesses and communities.[16]
The public awareness campaign included the creation of a specific purpose
website: www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au, a direct mail out campaign to Australian
households (What a carbon price means for you: The pathway to a clean energy
future – a 19 page document promoting the government's policy) and provided
information via the websites of both the Climate Change Commission and the
Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
6.17
In addition to these advertising and public education initiatives,
information has also recently been made public that suggests environmental
groups supportive of the government's carbon tax and clean energy future policy
were provided with funding to run community campaigns supporting it:
Details of the grants were revealed during Senate estimates
today and the opposition immediately seized on them, claiming the groups were
being rewarded for their political support of the government and its carbon
scheme.
Grants to the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Climate
Institute and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition...were approved by Climate
Change Minister Greg Combet only weeks before the government announced details
of its climate change package in July.[17]
6.18
At a Senate Estimates hearing on 17 October 2011, the Department of
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency provided further information concerning
some of the grants that have been paid:
Table 6.1: Details of grants paid by the government to
organisations supportive of the government clean energy future policy[18]
Organisation
|
Amount of grant
|
Activities to be funded
|
Australian conservation
foundation (ACF)
|
$398 000
|
Public education campaign involving a series of 2000
workshops around Australia.
|
Australian Youth Climate
Coalition (AYCC)
|
$271 000
|
Two AYCC Power Shift Summits held in Perth and
Brisbane.
|
Shmeco.com
|
$15 000
|
Sustainable House Day 2011
|
Carbon Expo 2011
|
$55 000
|
Sustainable House Day 2011
|
Climate Institute
|
$250 000
|
To work with the Australian Council of Social
Service and Choice to compare carbon price impacts for consumers compared to
other government reforms.
|
CSIRO
|
$500 000
|
Public engagement including $100 000 for a summer
study on energy efficiency and carbon mitigation.
|
Climate Works Australia
|
$460 000
|
Grant not yet finalised – still being negotiated.
To raise community awareness of how to reduce carbon
emissions in the most cost-effective way possible, using regional or local
low-carbon growth plans as a guide.
|
Committee comment
6.19
The committee takes the view that the government's lack of transparency
around the extent of its education and implementation expenditure for this
policy initiative demonstrates the lack of respect it has for the community.
6.20
Further, given that it has since been revealed that the government spent
$24 million on advertising the clean energy future package,[19]
the committee takes the view that any failure on the part of the community to
understand the detail of the proposed tax cannot be attributed to the media but
rather an ineffective media and direct public education campaign by the
government. The committee considers that as this is the case, the government
should answer for the further waste and mismanagement that has occurred
throughout this hurried process.
6.21
The committee also suggests that by paying grants to environmental
groups supportive of the government's policy, the government was able to side
step the requirements of the Guidelines on Information and Advertising
Campaigns by Australian Government Departments and Agencies.[20]
The committee considers that this is inappropriate and calls the government to
account for these inappropriate actions.
6.22
The committee takes the view that all of the evidence supports its view
that any lack of community understanding that surrounds the government's Clean Energy
Future package is the result of the rushed legislative development process, the
hasty introduction of the legislation into parliament and an ineffective
advertising campaign. Most importantly, the Australian public understand a bad
tax when one is put in front of it.
Recommendation 8
6.23
The committee calls upon the government to carefully consider
further expenditure on its so-called community education for the carbon tax and
suspend further unnecessary advertising if the government's legislation passes
the Parliament.
Senator Mathias
Cormann
Chair
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