PARLIAMENTARY Secretary for Climate Change, Greg Combet has met with senior coal industry chiefs in Rochampton, Queensland in an effort to gain support for the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
Combet toured the Parkhurst magnesia mining and processing business QMAG which told a Senate Inquiry in May 2009 that they feared the scheme would have a negative impact on the mining industry resulting in a loss of jobs.
Combet says his visit had been prompted by Kirsten Livermore, the Federal Member for Capricornia. He claims that Livermore wants to ensure the Government provides proper support for local industries and jobs while Australia goes about combating the most significant environmental challenge the country has ever faced.
However, the coal industry claims this scheme will disadvantage Australia’s competitiveness and the emissions will simply be produced in a country that does not pose such harsh conditions. To add insult to injury, the coal industry has been excluded from the Government's plan to offer free permits to compensate trade-exposed companies when emissions trading is introduced in 2011.
The Parliamentary Secretary says that the Government is pursuing an international agreement so trading partners would also have a scheme that put a price on carbon so that increasing production costs of miners and mineral processors would not give a competitive advantage to rivals overseas.
Add a comment