Carbon tax details tipped within weeks as Greens flag more on compensation

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has flagged details on the carbon tax will be released within weeks, after the Greens said they recognised the need for flexibility on compensation.

Gillard told Seven Network today that a likely timeframe for the conclusion of talks with the Greens and the cross-benchers was weeks, rather than months.

“Yes, it’s taking some time but pricing carbon is the right thing to do to tackle climate change. I’m not going to delay an extra day. We are going to get this done and give people the details,” Gillard said.

Greens Leader Bob Brown told ABC’s Insiders at the weekend that the party’s big aim is deliver flexibility in the scheme, which the Government hopes to introduce in July 2012. He added that just one or two matters needed to be addressed by the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee.

“And I think we’ll have a degree of flexibility that wasn’t there with the CPRS,” Brown said, referring to the Rudd Government’s failed emissions trading scheme.

According to a report in The Australian Financial Review, this means the Greens are prepared to compromise more on compensation in order to settle on a higher target for reducing emissions. The Greens are soon set to hold the balance of power in the Senate.

The announcement comes as opposition leader Tony Abbott pledges to cut taxes, even if the carbon tax is repealed under a Coalition Government. Abbott told the Liberal Party federal council over the weekend that “tax cuts are in our DNA”.

“The next Coalition government will build on the Howard legacy of reducing personal income taxes for everyone and especially delivering a fair go for middle income families with children,” Abbott said.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard said questioned how Abbott would fund the multibillion-dollar promise.

“I’m prepared to make available to Mr Abbott officials from Treasury to work with him in coming weeks to cost whatever he says he wants to do in tax so that we can see what it means and the billions of dollars it would cost,” Gillard said.

Gillard added that nine in 10 households will receive compensation if the tax proceeds, although there are signs families earning over $150,000 a year will miss out.

On Meet the Press yesterday, Gillard said the government wants to announce a complete plan.

“We are working towards announcing a complete package and that means I’ll be able to say to Australians, every Australian, ‘this is how it’s going to work. This is how much money is coming in your direction. This is what the big polluters are paying.'”

Separately, a new poll from the Lowy Institute has found 41% of 1,000 respondents questioned in March do not think climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed quickly.

That figure represents a five point drop from last year, and is down 27% from the 2006 survey high point. Lowy Institute executive director Michael Wesley told the ABC this morning that there is a perception the Government is not committing to the issue.

The Lowy Institute’s Wesley’s said there is not much political will to do anything serious about global warming.

The Institute also found that the older a person is, the likelier they are to oppose paying higher electricity prices.