Australia has become the first country in the world to abolish a price on the carbon after it revoked the carbon tax on worst greenhouse gas polluters, PTI reported.
The decision to scrap the much-critisized carbon tax happens after years of political discussions. The upper Senate house voted 39-32 to scrap the carbon tax which was followed by the micro-party senators voting with the government.
The latest move is the Conservative party’s coalition government’s third attempt to repeal the tax which was introduced in November last year.
The previous Labor government had introduced a carbon tax in July 2012.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abott said, the households will benefit on average by USD 550 a year from the repeal, with gas prices to fall by 7 per cent and electricity prices by 9 per cent with the new law.
Announcing the new step Abott said, “You voted to scrap the tax in September last year, and today the Parliament finally listened. Today the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone”.
“A useless, destructive tax which damaged?jobs, which hurt families cost of living, and which didn’t actually help the environment is finally gone. Well, what I am saying is that we have just scrapped the carbon tax,” he said.
“We certainly will not do anything that damages our economy or puts our people and our businesses at an unfair competitive disadvantage,” We are never, ever going to do that, he added.
After the vote Opposition leader Bill Shorten lashed out at Abbott saying that he was an “environmental vandal.”
“Today, Tony Abbott has made Australia the first country in the world to reverse action on climate change. History will judge Tony Abbott very harshly for refusing to believe in genuine action on climate change. Tony Abbott is sleepwalking Australia to an environmental and economic disaster”, Shorten said.
Australia is considered to be one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita, because of its heavy reliance on the country’s vast reserves of cheap coal for electricity.