Carbon tax debate fires up in Canberra

SYDNEY, March 23 (AAP)-The difficulty of estimating effective carbon prices in other countries could weaken the federal government's ability to compensate big polluters accurately.
The Productivity Commission has been asked to estimate the effective price faced by electricity, manufacturing and transport industries in countries including the United Kingdom, the USA, China and Japan.
The data will be used to work out how much compensation Australian companies should receive under an emissions trading scheme.
But in a working paper released on Wednesday, the commission notes that "accessing data is proving particularly challenging" for some trading partners.
Quizzed about this issue, government climate change adviser Ross Garnaut acknowledged there were "conceptual and data issues" to be sorted out.
But he said the commission was doing a good job and the comparative prices should be ready to roll by 2015.
That's when he wants generous assistance for emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries to be wound back and comparative compensation to begin.
Determining a competitor's effective carbon price would require lot of resources, but the task was worth it to avoid "potential serious distortion of the Australian economy and the integrity of our political system", Prof Garnaut told reporters.
The economist released the seventh update of his landmark 2008 climate change review earlier on Wednesday.
Prof Garnaut wants Australia to double its expected expenditure on new low-emissions technologies to $2.5 billion annually by 2017.
Funding would then plateau until 2022 before gradually declining.
The update states that pricing carbon will drive innovation, but "on its own it will not increase it by enough".
That's because the market doesn't always support research and development adequately - hence the need for government support.
Prof Garnaut's strong views weren't appreciated at an anti-carbon tax rally outside parliament house in Canberra.
When his name was mentioned the placard-waving crowd booed long and loud.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had previously told the rally, dominated by retirees who'd travelled from Sydney, that there needed to be an intelligent response to climate change "not just a great big new tax".
He said the rally represented a snapshot of middle Australia which was rightly concerned that pricing carbon would send jobs offshore.
Regular chants of "liar, liar, liar" were directed towards Prime Minister Julia Gillard, along with the nastier "ditch the bitch".
Greens spokeswoman Christine Milne said it was disappointing to see sexist placards as well.
"It's about time we had a mature discussion in Australian politics that didn't stoop to the denigration of female parliamentarians," the Tasmania senator said in a statement.
Greens leader Bob Brown went so far as to apologise for the offensive banners. In a letter to the PM he offered a heartfelt apology "on behalf of many people in Australia who think differently".
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the rally was part of Mr Abbott's so-called people's revolt.
He told parliament the revolt was led by the Menzies House website which was founded with the help of Liberal senator Cory Bernardi.
Other groups involved were the Consumers and Taxpayers Association, which organised Wednesday's rally, and climate sceptic groups, the anti-Semitic Australian League of Rights and One Nation.
But Mr Combet said those wanting action on climate change had won the day in the battle of numbers.
The minister said he'd received a petition with 12,500 signatures calling for urgent action.