Earlier this week the Senate passed the Clean Energy Legislation package.
This new legislation will see high-emission-emitting companies pay a $23 a tonne carbon tax from next July, with about half the revenue returned to households in the form of tax cuts and increases in pensions and family payments to compensate them as electricity generators pass on the cost of the new tax. Average households will see a $9.90 weekly cost rise, but the average household will receive assistance of $10.10 weekly, leaving many households better off.
ABSA welcomes this new legislation as an opportunity to lift standards of comfort and energy use in homes, particularly if the compensation is directed towards permanently improving home energy efficiency so that change is “hardwired”.