Carbon Tax to Hit Manufacturing
24-March-2011
Julia Gillard’s carbon tax cave-in is another dagger through the heart of Australia’s manufacturers.
Her new tax will inevitably subject Australian industry to extra costs that are not faced by our overseas competitors.
Our manufacturers are already facing enormous challenges in remaining internationally competitive because of the increases in cheaply-priced imports, rising interest rates and the high Australian dollar.
Ms Gillard’s carbon tax will only add to the unfair competitive advantages that overseas businesses enjoy over their rivals in Australia.
It is the latest in a long line of blows to a sector that has been repeatedly failed by Ms Gillard and her bumbling Industry Minister, Kim Carr.
Manufacturing activity has repeatedly contracted and more than 87,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost under their watch.
This is at the same time as manufacturing has significantly expanded in the USA and a range of European and ASEAN states.
But Ms Gillard and Mr Carr’s only policy response has been to rip the heart out of the sector’s research and development activities by gutting government support through ill-advised R&D Tax Credit laws.
BlueScope Steel CEO Paul O’Malley is correct when he says the Government’s policies are so ill-conceived that it is running “almost an anti-manufacturing” agenda.
This deceitful and incompetent Government simply doesn’t care about the competitive future of great Australian businesses.