Carbon scheme too expensive for Sydneysiders

By Staff Writer

Sydney residents are not prepared to pay anywhere near the expected costs of the Federal Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), according to a survey by the Australian National University.

The study conducted by PhD student Sonia Akter and Professor Jeff Bennett from the ANU Crawford School of Economics and Government compared the benefits of the CPRS with the costs involved.

It included a survey of 600 Sydney residents to find out whether ordinary Australians were willing to pay the extra household costs likely to be generated by the CPRS.

“The survey respondents were willing to pay an extra $135 per household each month towards the CPRS,” Professor Bennett said in a statement.

“But when aggregated across the nation, this represents $8.46 billion per annum – significantly less than the Treasury estimated cost of $14.7 billion per annum.”

Professor Bennett argued that neither Federal Treasury nor the Garnaut Review were able to estimate the “full suite of uncertain benefits” expected to come from the CPRS.

“That means that policy measure that will undoubtedly have dramatic impacts on the lives of all Australians are about to be introduced without due consideration of their benefits and costs.”

He said the study revealed that the Australian public was not ill-informed about climate change, but clearly thinking through the matter.

“The results show that the uncertainties surrounding both climate change and the effectiveness of climate change policy weigh heavily on people’s minds.”

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