Australia to announce scaled-down carbon tax proposal

Jul 7, 2011, 3:21 GMT

Sydney - The Australian government was to announce the price it is putting on carbon emissions at the weekend after months of speculation and wrangling with interest groups, news reports said Thursday.

Several media groups quoted sources as saying the price, to be announced Sunday, would be 23 Australian dollars (24.70 US dollars) per ton.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard was preparing a public campaign in support of the measure, a watered-down version of previous proposals, ahead of a Parliament vote on the legislation set for August.

She discouraged people from guessing, saying the announcement at the weekend would reveal the tax levels and details of compensation packages for households and industry.

'A limited number of big businesses [will pay],' she said on Sky TV. 'It is not being paid by Australian families.'

The Sydney Morning Herald said without citing sources that the tax would be 23 Australian dollars a ton and would affect about 500 companies because of exemptions for several industries and the exclusion of fuel for individuals and small businesses.

The previously suggested version of the tax would have applied to about 1,000 companies.

Gillard's minority Labor government has been negotiating for months with the Greens and independent members of Parliament who hold the balance of power to get an agreement on the measures.

The prime minister has promised that 90 per cent of households would get hundreds of dollars in compensation to help them meet the expected increase in electricity and living costs.

She told Parliament she would wear out her shoe leather going around Australia explaining the package and fighting opposition from the Conservatives and the powerful mining industry, which have said the carbon tax would bring job losses.

The government was to launch a 12-million-Australian-dollar advertising campaign supporting the tax next week to combat the mining industry's own campaign.