Labor's emissions policy does not have to be a carbon tax to have a cost

Bill Shorten’s new climate change policy asks Australian companies to make a huge effort to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in a way that is certain to come at a cost.

Don't get hung up on whether Labor's policy is a "carbon tax".
Industrial polluters will have to pay to bring down their emissions or buy permits to meet Labor’s ambition to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030, and some of them will have to pass these costs on to customers.

This does not make it a carbon tax. The semantic debate over a "tax" has poisoned Australian debate on energy and climate for too long. It is about time the policies were examined without resort to stale political soundbites.

The Labor policy expands the Coalition’s existing "safeguard mechanism" by extending it to more companies and applying a stricter benchmark for emissions.

Read the opinion  piece from The Age by David Crowe - “Labor's emissions policy does not have to be a carbon tax to have a cost.”