THE Senate Committees tasked with reviewing the Coalition Government’s legislation to repeal the carbon and mining taxes have handed down their respective reports, with the Coalition majority of both committees recommending the bills pass, while the Labor and Greens dissenting reports urge the legislations be blocked.

Carbon Tax Repeal Bill

The Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 [Provisions] and related bills was referred to a Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, chaired by Nationals Senator John Williams, on November 14.

On December 2, the committee tabled its report which recommended the package of bills to repeal the carbon tax be passed.

Drawing on evidence that the carbon tax had impacted the cost of living for Australian people and damaged the nation’s international competitiveness, Senator Williams said the economic burden the carbon tax has placed on business and households had ‘no environmental gain’.

“There is no doubt the ill-conceived carbon tax has forced up the cost of doing business in Australia and places our businesses at a disadvantage when competing with their overseas competitors,” Senator Williams said in a press statement.

The committee’s majority report also states that it is satisfied that the additional powers that are provided to the ACCC will ensure that cost imposts charged on consumers as a result of the carbon tax will be reduced or removed entirely in a rapid manner.

“Evidence received by the committee shows that Australia’s carbon tax is one of the highest and broadest carbon taxes in the world. The carbon tax has had a significant impact on costs for Australian businesses and families. In particular, the price of electricity and gas has increased to record levels,” the report said.

“In response to increased energy costs and compliance measures, struggling businesses have been forced to pass these costs on to customers. Where circumstances have not allowed businesses to pass on these costs, they have been forced to bear the brunt of the new tax.

“The committee agrees with the bill’s intention to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority.”

Dissenting reports from the Labor Party and Australian Greens do not support the repeal of the carbon tax, citing a lack of confidence in the Coalition’s ‘direct action plan’ and concerns about falling before our international counterparts in terms of action on climate change.

The Senate will vote on the carbon tax repeal legislation by the end of next week. If, as expected, the Greens and Labor Senators vote down the bill, Prime Minister Tony Abbott will need to wait until the new Senate rises in mid-2014 to abolish the tax.

Mining Tax Repeal Bill

The Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 [Provisions] was referred to a Senate Economics Legislation Committee on November 14, chaired by Tasmanian Liberal David Bushby.

After summarising the arguments for and against repealing the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (‘mining tax’), the committee majority stated that it views the bill as ‘an appropriate and necessary response to the difficult budgetary situation confronting the government’.

“Prior to this inquiry, it had already been well established that the Minerals Resource Rent Tax is a poorly designed tax, that imposes a significant compliance and administrative burden on mining companies and damages Australia’s competitiveness,” said Senator Bushby in the report’s summary.

“During the inquiry, the committee received clear and compelling evidence from industry participants and peak bodies that the tax continues to have a detrimental impact on the Australian resources sector and the Australian economy more broadly.

“Similarly, the failure of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax to raise any significant revenue, and in particular its failure to raise the levels of revenue projected by the former government, was already well known prior to this inquiry. This failure underlines the need to repeal or revise measures that the tax was intended to fund.”

In addition to recommending the bill be passed into legislation, the committee also said the government should revisit some certain measures in the bill related to small business taxation and superannuation incentives for low income earners.

The dissenting report from the committee’s Labor members strongly argued against the legislation, stating that it represents ‘a retrospective tax grab on millions of Australia’s low paid workers to give a tax refund to large mining companies’.

“Labor senators have a fundamental view that Australians deserve to share in the benefits of the minerals we all own—the MRRT is a profit-based tax, so when profits are high, revenue is up,” said the Labor Senator’s dissenting report.

“While repealing the MRRT might reduce the tax burden on some iron ore and coal miners, the consequent repeal of, or changes to, other measures would have a detrimental effect on some of Australia’s poorest workers and on small businesses operating in a difficult economic environment.”