After readinmg this I wonder just how Swan will cook the books to hide this monumental mismanagement & his total incompetence. Tjis is a thousand times worse than the mining tax fiasco, billions have been spent & promised & they are going out backwards, they have no money & Combet is the "biggest bs artist in the world:
Not only are they lying to us every day but they are in charge of this country & driving it into the ground. This Carbon Tax is slated to go up every year so it's a tax that would cripple this country & Labor lie about it every day. This is totally unforgiveable.
If nothing else they deserve to be driven out for this. When they are finally gone I shudder to think just what shape & how big a hole is really there.
EU carbon crash to dig $10bn budget hole
by: Sid Maher, Political correspondent
Coalition warns of budget black hole
The coalition says the federal budget could be facing a black hole after Europe's carbon price plummeted.
A PRICE collapse in the world's biggest carbon market threatens to punch a $10 billion revenue hole in the Gillard government's budget forward estimates and has reignited business calls less than five months before the federal election for Labor's carbon pricing scheme to be scrapped.
Business was united in condemning Labor's carbon scheme after European Union carbon prices plunged to less than one-fifth of the Australian price, in response to the EU parliament narrowly rejecting a plan to prop up prices.
The government faced immediate business pressure to abandon its fixed carbon price, which is due to rise from $23 a tonne to $24.15 on July 1.
Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd declared it "ridiculous" that Australian businesses faced a $23-a-tonne carbon price while the Europeans faced a price just above $3 a tonne.
AI Group chief executive Innes Willox said the EU parliament's vote to keep carbon prices low highlighted "how far out of kilter Australia's high fixed carbon prices are".
"Linking internationally and abolishing the fixed-price carbon tax now would cut the carbon price by 80 per cent to $4, reducing electricity prices by more than 1.5c per kilowatt hour and taking pressure off trade-exposed industries and households," Mr Willox said.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry economics director Greg Evans described the Australian scheme as "economic recklessness" and said it should be scrapped.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke declared the scheme was now "untenable".
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said the government would revise its forecasts for its carbon price revenue when it delivered the budget in May.
Mr Combet said linking with the European scheme was still two years away. A lot could happen in that time, and the Europeans would try other measures to raise their carbon price.
Wayne Swan said through a spokesman that the government would update revenue and forecasts in the budget in the "usual way".
Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the budget was in "chaos" and faced a $7bn revenue hole.
University of Wollongong economics professor Henry Ergas predicted a $5.3bn revenue hole in each of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 years based on the collapse of the European carbon price to about $5 a tonne. Professor Ergas said that, by pricing carbon at less than $5 a tonne, the market was providing an indication of where it believed prices were headed.
"It was a foolish scheme to begin with," he said. "It makes no sense to have a high price now and a low price in future . . . there is no benefit to the environment or to the economy."
The government's scheme budgets for a $23 a tonne price in 2012-13, rising to $24.15 in 2013-14 and $25.40 in 2014-15. The carbon price will be linked with the EU scheme from July 2015 and the price will float.
In last year's budget, Treasury predicted the carbon price would be $29 a tonne in 2015-16, providing projected revenues of $6.7bn.
In sticking with the $29 figure, Treasury acknowledged that prices had fallen but cited potential EU "policy options to increase the current low prices in the EU ETS, with implications for international carbon markets".
On Tuesday night the European parliament rejected a proposal - by 334 votes to 315 - to postpone the sale of 900 million permits aimed at propping up the price. The price immediately fell 50 per cent to a low of $3.23.
After the vote, the EU's Council of Environment Ministers said it would look at alternative ways to bolster the EU carbon price.
Mr Combet said the EU was very determined to tackle global greenhouse gas emissions.
"This was just one proposal of a number that they are considering to support their emissions trading scheme so it will now be considered further by the parliament's environment committee in Europe," Mr Combet said.
"The carbon market in Europe is just one of the markets that has been affected very seriously by the global financial crisis and by the financial crisis in Europe specifically and so the low prices are a response to those influences. We will continue with our plans to link with the European emissions trading scheme from 1 July, 2015, which is still over two years away, but this year's budget, as is usual practice by Treasury, will include a revised forecast for a carbon price in 2015-16 in Australia."
Mr Combet said it was widely recognised that emissions trading schemes were the most effective way of developing a global carbon market that would drive down greenhouse gas emissions.
"And I don't think the overnight events in the European parliament which are just considering one proposal should be seen as some way of undermining global action on climate change," he said. "The determination is there and the commitment to develop global carbon markets is there."
Mr Evans said the collapse of the European price "shows the scale of the economic recklessness of imposing a carbon tax of $23 a tonne on Australian industry and consumers".
"The highest carbon price in the world is taking its toll on domestic industry with investment and jobs starting to move offshore in a number of energy intensive industries and smaller more vulnerable businesses," he said.
Mr Hooke said the $23 carbon tax was untenable, "as it locks in a huge competitive disadvantage against the only other economy-wide carbon pricing scheme, and an even larger hit compared with most other competitors with no carbon price at all".
"This futile millstone around the neck of Australian exporters should be scrapped," he said. "There is a better way to price carbon to manage the challenge of climate change."
