Call to Preserve Jobs with More Carbon Tax Exemptions
Unions are pushing for more exemptions to the carbon tax to preserve jobs in key energy-intensive industries, Council of
Trade Unions economist Peter Conway said today.
The Government has announced the tax will come into force in 2007, in line with its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to
cut greenhouse gases.
The CTU had pushed very hard for Negotiated Greenhouse Agreements (NGAs) to exempt companies from the carbon charge in
certain cases, Peter Conway said.
“The main concern is that energy-intensive companies in oil refining, steel, wood processing, cement and other sectors
would be disadvantaged compared with overseas companies where there was no carbon charge.”
Peter Conway said very few NGAs have been negotiated so far and it was important that considerably more were agreed in
the next 18 months.
ENDS