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Australia's Senate has voted to repeal the carbon tax, a levy on the biggest polluters passed by the previous Labor government. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose Liberal-National coalition beat Labor in an election last year, had made the repeal a central aim of his government.
Politicians have been locked in a fierce row about the tax for years. Labor says it helps to combat climate change, but the Liberals claim it penalises legitimate businesses. The Australian Senate voted by 39 to 32 votes to repeal the tax. Introduced in July 2012, it charges the 348 highest polluters A$ 23 (£ 13; US$ 22.60) for every tonne of greenhouse gases they produce.
The Climate Institute think-tank said in a statement that the move left Australia "bereft of credible climate policy".
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot said the carbon tax had been "useless and destructive". He says he plans to replace it with a A$2.55bn taxpayer-funded plan under which industries will be paid to reduce emissions and use cleaner energy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 18 2014, @07:03PM
You say that taking away the carbon tax is a good thing because that means there is one less tax to pay (which was payed only by the "big polluters", don't forget). With the new system, the money of taxpayers (mostly common people) will be used to help the "big polluters" reduce their emissions.
This sounds to me more like an indirect raise in taxes for the common people. They won't have to pay more taxes, but instead there will be less public money for other things (like for instance education or healthcare). So, what is actually happening is: polluting companies pay less, and common people pay more. Personally I don't think this is fair!
I don't understand this idea that taxes are bad! Irresponsible spending of tax money is really bad! taxes... we wouldn't have any western societies without them!
For instance, they could have used the money from the carbon tax to help reduce the emissions of CO2 in the first place. On the other side, "big polluters" could just have avoided paying the carbon tax by reducing their emissions....
I really don't see any benefit from the new system.