Industry wants more under carbon price

18 Jul 11

The federal government is being urged to do more to help businesses cope with a $23 a tonne carbon price.

The Australian Industry Group (AiGroup), which represents 60,000 businesses in a range of sectors, says the price is too high and will dent profits across the board.

'We said we should start slow and build up ... the $23 price is a risk to the economy,' chief executive Heather Ridout told Network Ten on Sunday.

'We haven't seen the blood through the veins of this system, there are a lot of risks ... this will give us a world leading carbon price.'

Although the government has promised compensation for families and businesses, Ms Ridout said industry will need more if it is to cope under the $23 price.

'It doesn't take into account the huge regulatory burden that's already in place,' she said.

'There's a whole lot of state schemes, there's feed-in tariffs, there's the small solar stuff, shown to be very expensive - all good feel-good stuff, but I think we do have to be ruthless.

'But we're not, we want our cake and eat it too.'

As announced last week, the government plans to charge $23 for every tonne of carbon emissions produced by the 500 or so top-emitting businesses starting July 1 next year.

The price will rise by 2.5 per cent plus inflation each year until the introduction of an emissions trading scheme in 2015.

Under the scheme, the renewable energy sector is also set to get a boost worth billions, but Ms Ridout said it will be tough work for Australian manufacturing to seize those opportunities.

'We used to be world leaders in solar, we really missed the ball on wind turbine technologies, so I think in a way we've kind of missed that run and it's very hard to recapture that,' she said.