Latest news with #Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation
The Australian
3 hours ago
- Business
- The Australian
Ex-Treasury boss Ken Henry says ‘mind boggles' over axing of carbon tax
Former Treasury boss Ken Henry has renewed calls for a carbon tax, lashing former governments for dropping the tax. He said 'it still boggles the mind that we had the world's best carbon policy' and questioned: 'Why the hell did we ever drop it?' The carbon pricing scheme was introduced by Labor in 2012 and placed on about 500 of Australia's largest polluters. Under the policy, companies had to purchase credits to offset the amount of carbon produced, with the funds generated form the levy returned through tax cuts and increases to welfare payments. The measure was later repealed by the Abbott government in July 2014 and replaced with an offset scheme to incentivise companies to avoid emitting CO2 by earning carbon credits. Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Henry, who was the Treasury secretary from 2001 to 2011, criticised the scrapping of the tax. 'It still boggles the mind that we had the world's best carbon policy and then, for purely political reasons, decided that we can afford to do without it,' he said, speaking as the chair of not-for-profit Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation. Former Treasury boss Ken Henry said 'why the hell did we ever drop it? when asked about the carbon tax. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman 'A country that's capable of creating the best and then decides that it doesn't need anything at all – well, my God, of course we need a carbon tax.' Mr Henry urged the government to not 'give up' and fix Australia's 'broken' environmental laws, taking aim at the 'not fit for purpose' and outdated Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC). 'Report after report tells the same story. The environment is not being protected. Biodiversity is not being conserved. Nature is in systemic decline,' he said. 'Of particular concern, they are incapable of supporting an economy in transition to net zero, and they are undermining productivity.' He noted that the government's pledge to erect 1.2 million homes by 2030 would require more land and transport, meaning more interaction with EPBC assessments. In strong criticism, he said there was 'no point in building a faster highway to hell', and while approvals needed to be granted faster, the environment needed to be protected. 'These projects, be they wind farms, solar farms, transmission lines, new housing developments, land-based carbon sequestration projects, new and enhanced transport corridors or critical minerals extraction and processing plants, must be delivered quickly and efficiently,' he said. Speaking more broadly about government spending, Dr Henry, who authored the Henry Tax Review in 2010 to guide tax reforms over the next 10 to 20 years, said there needed to be more 'spending discipline'. 'If the budget is to meet these growing spending pressures, then we've got two options. We either increase taxes, as a share of GDP, or we grow the economy faster,' he said, noting productivity growth had slumped from an average of 2.31 per cent in the '90s to 0.98 per cent in the last 25 years. 'That's a pretty fundamental difference. 'If we continue on that trajectory, as we said in 2002, we will have no option but to raise taxes, and quite significantly, by several percentage points of GDP … or cut spending.' Jessica Wang NewsWire Federal Politics Reporter Jessica Wang is a federal politics reporter for NewsWire based in the Canberra Press Gallery. She previously covered NSW state politics for the Wire and has also worked at and Mamamia covering breaking news, entertainment, and lifestyle. @imjesswang_ Jessica Wang
News.com.au
a day ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Environmental reform could slash government spending, lift productivity: expert
Urgent reform of Australia's 'broken' environmental laws would dramatically cut government costs and lift productivity growth, a leading environment expert claims. The Albanese government has faced continued pressure over Australia's sluggish productivity growth, which is among the worst in the developed world. Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair Ken Henry said sweeping environmental reform could be the solution. The former Treasury secretary will tell the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday there is 'no chance' the Labor government will meet its net-zero target while also delivering upon housing and infrastructure commitments without reform to state and federal environmental protection laws. 'The Australian government has an ambition to massively increase critical minerals exports and downstream processing here in Australia,' Dr Henry is expected to state. 'This means more mines, new industrial facilities, and more pressure being loaded onto broken EPBC project assessment and approval processes.' The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, or EPBC, is Australia's main national environmental legislation. Dr Henry said the government's pledge to erect 1.2 million homes by 2030 would require more land and transport, meaning more interaction with EPBC assessments. 'These projects, be they wind farms, solar farms, transmission lines, new housing developments, land-based carbon sequestration projects, new and enhanced transport corridors or critical minerals extraction and processing plants, must be delivered quickly and efficiently,' Dr Henry will tell the NPC. 'All these projects will be critical to enhancing economic resilience and lifting flagging productivity growth. 'Boosting productivity and resilience relies upon environmental law reform. 'But the biggest threat to future productivity growth comes from nature itself; more particularly, from its destruction.' Dr Henry will urge for a breaking of the 'deadlock' to deliver sweeping reforms in a single package. They would include protecting Matters of National Environmental Significance guidelines by shifting the focus to regional planning, urgent finalisation of the effective national environmental standards, and formation of a national environmental protection agency. He will also urge for 'genuine co-operation and a shared purpose' between business and environmental groups as well as between the states and federal government. 'Environmental law reform provides an opportunity to reconstruct the co-operative federal reform capability we developed in the 1990s but have since lost,' Dr Henry will state. 'A strong federal reform capability will be required to deliver other, even more challenging economic reforms. Environmental law reform can provide the template.' Dr Henry said there was 'no point in building a faster highway to hell', and while approvals needed to be granted faster, the environment needed to be protected. 'In reforming the EPBC Act, we can get this right. We have had all the reviews we need,' he will say. 'All of us have had our say. It is now up to parliament. Let's just get this done.' The Labor government is contending with a raft of proposals to fix productivity, from superannuation reform to artificial intelligence and disability inclusion. At the same time, Environment Minister Murray Watt said in May that legislating a federal environment protection agency was a 'very high and immediate' priority.
