A clean slate could build public confidence and offer long-term investment certainty, says the Business Council of Australia
Big business wants the main parties to go back to the drawing board on climate policy after the election to try to come up with an agreed plan for an economically efficient way to reduce Australia's emissions and offer investment certainty.
In what amounts to a vote of no confidence in the environmental policies of both major parties, the Business Council of Australia says the government's independent research body, the Productivity Commission, should be asked to have another look at the cheapest way to reduce to Australia's greenhouse emissions.
When it was asked to review international carbon policies in 2011, the commission found that in general carbon pricing was most cost-effective, so long as it was not "crowded out" by other regulations and climate subsidies.
New modelling has suggested the Coalition's Direct Action plan – of buying emissions reduction through competitive government grants– is at least $4bn short of the money it needs to achieve Australia's minimum emissions reduction of 5% by 2020. Many business groups – including the BCA – support carbon pricing but have criticised Labor's model.
But the Coalition leader, Tony Abbott, has built his political successes as opposition leader on his campaign against a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme and says legislation to repeal the carbon price will be the first thing he brings to parliament if he wins on 7 September.
Asked whether she believed there was any chance the Coalition would abandon Direct Action and agree to such a review, the BCA deputy chief executive, Maria Tarrant, said: "The Coalition has always been on about making sure the policy is at lowest cost and has environmental integrity … so if the Productivity Commission said a particular policy met those core principles then I think the Coalition would have grounds to consider what the Productivity Commission had said."
She said the political impasse risked constant changes in climate policy every time the government changed, which would hurt long-term investment decisions.
"Business wants some confidence that the policy will be in place for some period of time … the risk of constant swapping from one policy to the other is a major concern … with a long-term investment you need policy that tells you something beyond three or six years," she said.
And she said a clean slate could also build public confidence that the policy was right.
"We are concerned if you look at the discussion in the media and the community you realise you don't have general community trust or confidence in the policy options," she said.
The review, which Tarrant said the BCA intended to discuss with Labor and the Coalition, would look at "how to design the policy to ensure lowest cost contribution to global reductions along with the rest of the world and also maintain Australia's competitiveness".
"We've been giving serious thought to this over the last few weeks after we released our economic action plan and we will be talking to both parties about it," Tarrant said.
A report by the consultancy firm AECOM commissioned by Businesses for a Clean Economy found 85% of the 570 firms surveyed preferred the current carbon pricing scheme to Direct Action.
The report surveyed businesses including ASX 10 companies and firms that have to pay the carbon tax.
