Improve climate change laws: business

Business groups want the federal government to "iron out" flaws in its climate
change legislation that failed in the Senate on Wednesday.

The government has promised to reintroduce its carbon pollution reduction scheme
(CPRS) bill for a third time when parliament resumes in February.
It will include the amendments negotiated with the former Liberal leadership.
But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) wants the government to
"iron out" flaws in the legislation, particularly the prospect of a "50 per cent
rise in energy prices" over the next three years.
"We were particularly concerned with the impact of rising energy prices on business
and how that may cascade through the economy," ACCI's director of industry policy
and economics Greg Evans told reporters in Canberra.
ACCI also believes there should be a combination of approaches to reducing
emissions, through energy efficiency levels, carbon taxes and new technologies.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) said it was committed to working with both
sides of politics to ensure there are workable policies.
"The best way for Australia to transition to a low-emissions economy is through a
market-based emissions trading scheme," BCA president Graham Bradley said in a
statement.
"For business to make the necessary investments to enable this transition it must
have regulatory and policy certainty."
The Minerals Council of Australia CEO Mitchell Hooke said the government needed to
get the design of its scheme right after having failed to meet three critical
criteria: materially reducing emissions, supporting new technologies and protecting
the competitiveness of exporters.
"It was not linked to the development of a global protocol, with Australian firms
paying billions of dollars in carbon costs while their competitors faced no costs,"
Mr Hooke said in a statement.
Not a single cent of the $120 billion raised by the scheme was devoted to developing
new low-emission technologies.
"Instead, the scheme would have cost thousands of jobs and billions of investment in
regional and remote Australia," Mr Hooke said.
The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) had supported the amended legislation and
said the failure of the Senate to pass the CPRS will "prolong, if not compound" the
uncertainty for business.
"While it is good to let tempers cool and allow time for clear thought ... (it)
leaves this important policy issue unresolved," the group's chief executive Heather
Ridout said in a statement.
The Ai Group also supports a market-based approach to climate change and said any
departure from this would impose unnecessary costs on the Australian community.
Ms Ridout said it was even more imperative that the education effort for business
start sooner rather than later.
"For this reason, the Climate Change Action Fund should not be put on hold even
though the direction of climate policy is now uncertain," she said.
Macquarie Bank associate economist Aimee Kaye noted new Liberal leader Tony Abbott
had indicated he was willing to go to an election on a platform of opposing any form
of carbon tax.
"It is uncertain what options are available, especially given increasingly global
shifts towards carbon trading," Ms Kaye said in a research note.
"Indeed, given recent moves by the Chinese government, it is likely that six of
Australia's top 10 trading partners, totalling over 50 per cent of Australia's
export value, will have emissions trading schemes in the foreseeable future."