Polarizing Impact One Year After Carbon Tax Implementation

As revealed in a national survey that had about 18,000 respondents, the carbon tax law brought little dent to many business operations in Australia, including large firms which reported that there was no effect or impact at all.

At least 47% of companies surveyed admitted that the rising of the carbon price, from $23 to $24.15 per tonne, did not bring any negative effect. However, the survey also showed that for companies that were affected, one in seven have described the impact as “very negative”. The mining and manufacturing sectors were most affected, while education, health, finance and property have the least worries.

According to the head of the DBM, which did the survey, “There is real polarisation – with very different results between the service industries and those which produce things or use a lot of energy, such as transport.”

In contrast, a different survey done by the Australian Industry Group showed that whether there was negative impact or not, carbon density in many business operations has not been reduced.

Reasons as to why this is the case vary from companies being cash-strapped to make changes, or they have already done energy efficient improvements prior to the implementation of the carbon tax law, that its impact are no longer significant. Some companies were also found to have not been cutting emissions as they are expecting carbon prices to drop.

The carbon tax law took effect in July last year.

The DBM finding was released at a time when the government is considering cutting the carbon price or switching it to a floating price, as opposed to a fixed price, by July 1, 2015.