Queensland deserves fair treatment

Queenslanders will be looking carefully at the state government's economic and financial analysis of the federal carbon tax in light of statewide polling results released by Galaxy Research.

Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche said today that a 'thumping' 80 percent of Queenslanders surveyed believe the state's coal industry should be treated fairly under the proposed new tax regime.

'Queenslanders are making it very clear that their leading export industry should not be singled out for unfair treatment,' Mr Roche said.

'As the carbon tax regime stands now, Queensland's coal industry will at best receive transitional assistance of six percent while other similar export-exposed industries qualify for a baseline 66 percent level of compensation.

'That also assumes a coal industry assistance package passes the Parliament, which is not going to happen if, as promised by Senator Brown, the Greens vote it down.'

Mr Roche said that following a NSW Treasury forecast yesterday of at least 31,000 job losses in that state as a result of the carbon tax, there would be renewed interest in findings from the Queensland Treasury.

The Queensland Government has forecast already that the carbon tax will wipe around $1.7 billion off the value of taxpayer-owned coal-fired power stations.

'With the data the Commonwealth used to model the impact of the carbon tax, there's about to be a much better informed debate.'

Mr Roche said that another revealing finding from the Queensland-wide Galaxy survey was the heavy support for government funding of technology to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

Permanent Link: Queensland deserves fair treatment
Publish Date: 04 Aug 11