MODELLING by Concept Economics for the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) shows that the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) will result in the loss of thousands of jobs in key regional centres of Queensland.
Queensland will be the state hardest hit by the Australian Government’s proposed CPRS with 11,440 direct jobs lost in the state’s minerals industries by 2020 and 34,090 by 2030, the first sector-wide economic modelling of the employment impact of the CPRS reveals.
The study represents the first detailed analysis of the impact of the proposed emissions scheme on employment across the Australian minerals sector.
MCA Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Hooke says the scheme represents the worst of both worlds. By imposing the world’s highest carbon costs on Australia’s minerals exporters, it will destroy jobs in our most important industries without delivering any appreciable reduction in global emissions. He says while the group shares the government’s commitment to reducing emissions, the modelling shows the CPRS is fundamentally flawed.
The Chief Executive of the Queensland Resources Council Michael Roche said there was not a major mining or minerals processing activity in Queensland that would not be significantly worse off in 10 and 20 years’ time under the emissions trading scheme.
However, Hooke says that the study confirms that the CPRS will be mostly successful in exporting jobs and emissions to competitor countries unlikely to match Australia's commitment to greenhouse gas emission targets.
Hooke claims that one simple change to the CPRS would deliver a cap-and-trade emissions reductions scheme without the job destroying impact of the current design. It should include a phased approach to emissions trading — with the number of carbon permits auctioned increasing over time.
Recent changes to the CPRS timetable have not fixed the fundamental flaws in the scheme.
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