A report that recommends putting a price on emissions from the electricity sector has been held back by the Climate Change Authority until after the election, prompting calls from Labor and the Greens that it be made public to inform debate.
The independent authority, whose board is now dominated by appointments made last October by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, was to have released its policy options paper for the power industry by the end of April.
The board, though, decided to withhold the report - along with the large Special Review due out by June 30 - until after the election, "assuming it is called for early July," the authority said on its website.
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| Put a carbon price on the electricity sector, leaked report by the independent Climate Change Authority says. Photo: Michele Mossop |
"Why would the authority not release something before the caretaker period?" a source said to Fairfax Media about the report on the power sector, which creates about one-third of Australia's carbon emissions.
Leaked details of the Climate Change Authority's electricity industry "policy options" report said "a mandatory carbon price of some form is desirable in the sector".
Mr Hunt, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other ministers have campaigned hard on Labor's plan to introduce a carbon price through an emissions trading scheme if election.
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| Environment Minister Greg Hunt during Question Time this week. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen |
That campaign stepped up a notch last week, after Labor revealed its climate policies, including setting up an emissions-intensity market to drive a shift to lower-polluting power stations.
Mr Hunt's first media release after Labor's policy was announced began: "Bill Shorten has announced a massive new electricity tax. It would have a devastating impact on the Australian economy, jobs, incomes and we would see power prices skyrocket."
Fairfax Media understands that board members - who number 10 in total and include Chief Scientist Alan Finkel - held a lengthy conference call on Thursday, April 29.
While Mr Hunt and his department did not intervene, his office was "very happy" that the electricity sector report's release was delayed, another source said.
A spokesman for Mr Hunt said his office had not seen the reports. He also dismissed the possibility that the government would have withheld a report favouring a wide-ranging carbon price on the eve of an election.
The CCA electricity report assessed the relative merits of different schemes, and found the emissions-intensive version (see "EI" in the following chart from the report) favoured by Labor to be among the cheaper options.
"The overall message is that an emissions trading scheme, even
with serious caps or baselines, is not going to have big impacts on the
economy, both immediately, and in the long term," one of the sources
said.A spokeswoman for the authority said: "The electricity modelling report has not been finalised and the authority will not be commenting on its internal deliberations."
However, it is understood some in the authority were wary that to release the reports so close to the election would inevitably expose the authority - and the validity of the carefully researched reports - to attacks.
Those wanting to scare voters about the cost of action would exaggerate the costs of any action, they said.
"A lot of people are very much in their bunkers [on this issue]," another source said. "There's a group of people who are still open to the issue", who might still be reached by carefully researched reports.
"Costs can be high but people have to remember that the costs of not doing something [to halt climate change] may be higher," the source said.
The authority was just trying to "give it the best opportunity for the report to be considered in a calmer environment", the source said.
Labor and the Greens, however, demand that the power sector report be released.
"If the government was confident that their Direct Action policy [to pay directly for carbon abatement] was effective, they wouldn't need to hide from this report," Mark Butler, Labor's environment spokesman, said.
"But Greg Hunt and Malcolm Turnbull know their policy isn't the right policy and don't want that confirmed by the Climate Change Authority," he said.
"What else doesn't the government want the Australian public to know before going to the polls?"
Larissa Waters, the Greens deputy leader, said the authority should not "withhold information vital to Australians as they cast their votes during a climate crisis".
"It's crucial Australians have this information before the election, which falls at a tipping point for Australia to save our very way of life by embracing the clean energy revolution to create jobs and tackle global warming," Senator Waters said.
The Abbott government had tried to scrap the Climate Change Authority but was blocked in the Senate. The 2016 budget, released on Tuesday, does not include funding for the authority beyond next year.
Dr Finkel, the Chief Scientist, was not available for comment.
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